Bob Richards

Robert "Bob" Richards (January 10, 1956 – March 23, 1994), born Robert L. Schwartz, was a popular personality on KSDK-TV in St. Louis, Missouri, where he worked as chief meteorologist in the 1980s and early 1990s. He was born and grew up in Bloomfield, New Jersey. Richards began his career as a meteorologist at WATE-TV in Knoxville, Tennessee before leaving to join The Weather Channel in Atlanta. While at WATE, he earned the Seal of Approval from the American Meteorological Society. Because of the Weather Channel's connection to its founder John Coleman, former chief meteorologist and weather forecaster for ABC's Good Morning America, Richards occasionally filled in on that show's morning broadcasts. Later he moved on to the short-lived Satellite News Channel, before joining KSDK-TV in 1983. Richards' death resulted from a plane crash, which is thought to have been suicide due to his anxiety over an alleged extra-marital affair that was increasingly becoming public knowledge. On the night of March 23, 1994, Richards took off from Spirit of St. Louis Airport in Chesterfield, Missouri, and flew his plane into the ground.