Roland Steadham, a longtime meteorologist for multiple South Florida TV news stations, was one of two people killed in a small plane crash last week in Idaho.
Steadham, 67, was the current chief meteorologist at CBS 2 in Boise. He and Dallin Laufenberg were killed in the crash, his news station reported.
Steadham worked for WTVJ-Ch. 6 as chief meteorologist from 1996 to 2006 and for WPLG-Ch.10 on weekend mornings in 2013 and 2014. He also worked with WSVN-Ch. 7 beginning in 1993 and later in his career in Salt Lake City.
In his South Florida career, Steadham served as a hurricane specialist for the NBC Network in the southeastern region of the U.S. and appeared on MSNBC News and the “Today” show in New York, according to his LinkedIn profile.
A Cuban-American who was born in New York and grew up in Hialeah, Steadham when he was hired at Ch. 7 became the “first-Cuban American anchor on an English-language station in this market,” the station said at the time, according to a South Florida Sun Sentinel July 1, 1993, report.
“I don’t know what it is about weather, but I’ve been fascinated by it for as long as I can remember,” he told the Sun Sentinel in 1993. “Anything that happens with the weather, my antennas go up. I remember when I was a little boy in Hialeah. I used to lay on the ground in my back yard and watch the afternoon thundershowers form.”
In his bio on CBS 2’s website, Steadham said he “spent half of his career forecasting hurricanes and severe thunderstorms in South Florida” and considered working in Boise “the highlight” of his time in the profession. He studied at Brigham Young University and the University of Utah and completed his education through the Mississippi State Meteorology Program, according to the bio. He earned both the American Meteorological Society and National Weather Association Seal of Approval.
Steadham, an experienced pilot and skydiver, wrote in his bio for the TV news station that he had logged more than 3,000 flight hours, “flying everything from competition aerobatics to twin-engine jets and gliders.”
Just before 11 a.m. Jan. 27, the small plane crashed on the Payette River in Gem County, Idaho, northwest of Boise, according to a statement from the Gem County Sheriff’s Office. The plane clipped a powerline and crashed into the frozen river, killing both men.
The plane, a Cub Crafters CCX-1865, was being used for a personal flight and was substantially damaged, according to the Federal Aviation Administration’s preliminary report.
Steadham flew frequently in the area where he crashed, CBS2 reported Monday.
“For the past decade, Roland Steadham guided people through storm after storm in Idaho,” CBS2 wrote in announcing his death last week. “He loved to study the weather and shared it with people across Idaho. Roland’s excitement for the weather was contagious.”
Well-known meteorologist and chief weathercaster for CBS New York Lonnie Quinn in a statement shared on social media last week said Steadham was among his first bosses in his career, at WTVJ.
“Roland and I bonded over our love of flying. We were the two pilots in the WTVJ weather office,” Quinn wrote. “Roland was outstanding ‘in the air’ AND ‘on the air.’ Yesterday, I lost a friend and a mentor, but the world lost a great guy. He was kind and decent. Two things that Roland would say are the most important qualities in life.”
Information from the New York Daily News was used in this report.