WJW meteorologist Dick Goddard is leaving TV after 55 years to focus on his animal advocacy efforts.
“For 55 years I’ve been doing the weather and I’m gonna keep doing it as we go into November,” said Goddard. “At that point I’m going to step away from the weather maps and we’re getting into total animal welfare.”
Goddard has been working to get a law passed that would make it a fifth-degree felony to knowingly cause serious physical harm to a companion animal. The bill, known as Goddard’s Law would also punish “depriving a pet of food, water or shelter, or inflicting long-term pain.”
“I was a loyal fan and admirer of Mr. Goddard’s while I was growing up here in Cleveland. I’ll never forget meeting him, getting an autograph and my picture taken with him at the Seven Hills Home Days way back in the mid 70s when I was a kid. It was a thrill then and I can honestly say that it’s still a thrill just to see him in the hallways here at the station,” said WJW GM Paul Perozeni. “There has never been a Cleveland television personality more caring, more expert at his profession and as genuine and beloved by co-workers and viewers alike than Dick Goddard.”
He started his career in 1961 at KYW and joined WJW in 1966.