SR0579 103RD GENERAL ASSEMBLY

SR0579 LRB103 35210 ECR 65191 r

SENATE RESOLUTION

WHEREAS, The members of the Illinois Senate wish to congratulate Tom Skilling on his retirement from WGN-TV on February 28, 2024, after 45 years of service; and

WHEREAS, Tom Skilling's first job was at the radio station WKKD in Aurora when he was 14; and

WHEREAS, Tom Skilling worked for several TV and radio shows in Illinois and Wisconsin before being hired as a meteorologist for WGN in 1978; and

WHEREAS, Tom Skilling animated his own weather maps early in his broadcasting career and subsequently helped bring animated satellite imagery and radar on air to WGN; and

WHEREAS, Tom Skilling was a WGN meteorologist during many weather-related events in Chicago history, including the brutal winters of the 1980s, the Plainfield tornado on August 28, 1990, the heat wave in 1995, and the Groundhog's Day blizzard of 2011; and

WHEREAS, Tom Skilling has reported firsthand on the weather in Alaska, Las Vegas, and on an ice-breaking ship in the middle of Lake Huron and was famously chased by a tornado in Oklahoma in 2010; and

WHEREAS, Tom Skilling has won multiple Emmys from the Chicago/Midwest chapter of the National Academy Television Arts & Science; he was honored with the Pride of Edgewater award from the Edgewater Chamber of Commerce in 2017 and the Broadcast Pioneer Award from the Illinois Broadcasters Association in 2018; U.S. Representatives Bill Foster and Mike Quigley submitted a statement to the official Congressional Record that honors his four-and-a-half decades as a meteorologist on November 1, 2023; and

WHEREAS, Tom Skilling funds a scholarship to assist a local college student each year; and

WHEREAS, Tom Skilling has hosted severe weather seminars at Fermilab near suburban Batavia for nearly four decades; and

WHEREAS, In recent years, Tom Skilling has studied the science of climate change, leading talks and participating in conferences on the subject across Chicago and the United States; and

WHEREAS, As the longtime chief meteorologist for WGN-TV, Tom Skilling has been one of the most trusted figures on television screens throughout the Chicago area for decades, expertly and calmly explaining the region's often unpredictable weather situations for generations of viewers; and

WHEREAS, Tom Skilling enjoys going to the beach and Loyola University's lakefront campus and being a regular at Lickity Split Frozen Custard, the Indie Cafe, and the Waterfront Cafe; therefore, be it

RESOLVED, BY THE SENATE OF THE ONE HUNDRED THIRD GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS, that we congratulate Tom Skilling on his retirement from WGN-TV on February 28, 2024; and be it further

RESOLVED, That a suitable copy of this resolution be presented to Tom Skilling as a symbol of our esteem and respect.