Bruce Schwoegler, Longtime WBZ Meteorologist, Dies At 80

WAYLAND, MA — Longtime Wayland resident and legendary New England broadcaster Bruce Schwoegler died last week at age 80, his family has announced.

Schwoegler spent 33 years as a meteorologist and science reporter at WBZ, rising to fame following his multi-day coverage of the Blizzard of '78. He worked at WBZ from 1968 until 2001, and was inducted into the Massachusetts Broadcasters Hall of Fame in 2014. He also won an Emmy for his work as a forecaster.

Following his broadcasting career, Schwoegler worked as an environmental consultant, and as an educator with a green roof startup company called Botanicals Nursery.

"My dad was the life of the party. He was loud, he loved a good prank and he had boundless energy. He took risks and didn’t fear failing or what people would think," his daughter, Mel White, said in a Facebook post Friday. "He was insanely intelligent and had a tireless work ethic. He was a do-it-yourselfer who could actually get it done. He had a proclivity for collecting items that 'may come in useful' to the point that we joked about burying him in a coffin made from the collected doors he had stored in the basement."

Schwoegler's family said he had suffered from aphasia in recent years — a disorder that impairs speech and written language abilities — but it didn't hold back his personality.

"[H]is comprehension, boisterous laugh and larger than life personality remained intact, enabling him to live vibrantly up until the very end," White said.