Brig.
Gen. William R. Gommel (Ph.D. 1973) retired on May 15th 1997 as the
Commander of the Indiana Guard Reserve (Air). Previously, he had been the
Director of Training from the date that he was appointed to the IGR (Air)
with the rank of colonel on February 8, 1990.
In the USAF, his
terminal active duty assignments included Staff Meteorologist for the Air
Force space program and Staff Scientist in the Pentagon with memberships
on several interdepartmental committees in the Executive Branch.'
In these positions, he was able to promulgate the first
meteorological rocket network and the first geostationary
satellite for storm tracking and communications.
In earlier assignments as a Regular Officer in the Army Air Corps and the Air Force Weather Service, Gommel served as Chief Forecaster at Tinker Field, Oklahoma; Fort Glenn in the Aleutian Islands; the Alaskan Weather Center located near Anchorage at Elmendorf AF Base; and Brooks AF Base, Texas. While in Alaska, he prepared the in-flight Arctic weather forecasts for the record-breaking flights of the US Navy's Truculent Turtle, the Air Force's Dreamboat. and round-the-World Reynold's Bombshell solo flight by the late Bill Odom. Subsequent USAF duties included Weather Central Analysis Supervisor, Rhein/Main Air Base, Germany; Chief of Technical Information, HQ 2nd Weather Wing, Germany; Chief, Technical Publications and Assistant Director of Scientific Services, HQ Air Weather Service; and Staff Meteorologist, HQ Space and Missile Systems, Los Angeles.
After retiring from
HQ USAF, May 1, 1965, General Gommel taught mathematics and served as
Chairman, Earth and Space Sciences at the University of Indianapolis until
June 30, 1992. He then was designated a Professor Emeritus without
full-time teaching responsibilities, but continues to serve as Director of
the Noblitt Observatory on the Campus.
When he retired
from the IGR, General Gommel was appointed a Sagamore of the Wabash and
commissioned as a Distinguished Hoosier by Governor Frank O'Bannon.
Formerly, he had received the Indiana Distinguished Service Medal on March
14, 1997, and was named a Fellow in the Indiana Academy of Science,
November 2, 1984. These are in addition to a number of other military and
scientific awards as well as community recognitions. He also is listed in
several national and international biographical publications.
He is a member of the American Meteorological Society and served on its Publications Committee. Moreover, he was one of the founding officers of its Indiana Chapter as well as of the Hoosier Association of Science Teachers. Other memberships include the American Geophysical Union, the Indiana Academy of Science (with service as Parliamentarian), the Honor Society of Phi Kappa Phi, and the United Methodist Church.
Gommel's earned
degrees at UCLA are the A.B. in the M.A. in 1952. He received the Ph.D. in
the Atmospheric Sciences at Purdue in 1973. His specialties include
climate change, eclipse meteorology, tropical storms, and weather
broadcasting.
He has encouraged
students to enter careers in science and the military, having served as
Director of the Central Indiana Science and
Engineering Fair, and he also hosted the Indiana Astronomical Society for
22 years. General Gommel continues to participate in church, Masonic, and
community offices and activities. On September 25, 1985, he received an
honorary Scottish Rite 33° in Detroit Michigan; then on March 23, 1986,
was commissioned a Kentucky Colonel by then Governor Martha Layne Collins.
William Raymond
Gommel was born at Indianapolis, Indiana, August 16, 1924. His father,
Dewey E. Gommel, was a research engineer, inventor and mathematician; his
mother, Joy Agnes Edie Gommel, was an elementary school teacher. William
or "Bill" was awarded the Faculty Scholarship Medal upon his graduation
from Arsenal Technical High School in 1942, and he attended Purdue
University before enlisting in the Army Air Corps during World War II. On
September 27, 1943, he married his high-school sweetheart, Vivian Pherigo
who is employed part-time on the staff of the Beech Grove Library in
Marion County. They have three married daughters. The youngest is Ruth
Williams, an Environmental Manager in the Indiana Department of
Environmental Management. The eldest, Dr. Angeline O'Malley of Lexington,
Kentucky, teaches at the University of Kentucky. The other daughter,
Virginia Harris, resides in Huntington Beach, California.
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