Obituary of Karl Loeper

Karl Loeper was the calm during the storm. 

As an in-flight meteorologist for the Navy’s “Hurricane Hunter” squadron, he kept his cool when colleagues needed help navigating perilous conditions. 

And when Loeper came to The Villages 12 years ago as the voice of AM-640 WVLG’s weather forecasts, he put weather-weary listeners at ease through the worst of Florida weather.

“He had a great way of assuring people, because of his knowledge, that everything will be OK,” said WVLG station manager Kathleen Kane.

Loeper died Thursday morning at The Villages Hospice House months after suffering a stroke. He was 75.

“Very unhappy news to hear about Karl’s passing,” said WVLG senior forecaster Dave Towle, of the Village of La Belle. “He was a wonderful, wonderful person.”

Since his WVLG debut in 2005, Loeper, of the Village of Belvedere, left his mark on anything and everything having to do with weather in The Villages.

Beyond forecasting, he also formed a team of volunteer weather spotters who use equipment such as rain gauges, digital lightning detectors and weather stations to identify weather phenomena.  He used the data from those observations in daily forecasts and monthly and yearly climatology outlooks.  Flying through the storm Loeper’s meteorology career began with his 20 years service in the U.S. Navy, which included five years with its weather reconnaissance aircraft squadron known as the Hurricane Hunters.

Until the Navy decommissioned the Hurricane Hunters in 1975, Loeper flew through storms to obtain data and information about them.  “He was telling us where to go in the storm, so we had to trust him and like him,” said Gary Polletta, of Jacksonville, who served with Loeper in the Navy’s Airborne Early Warning Squadron Four. “We ended up loving him.”

Loeper said he flew into 15 hurricanes.

“You can’t see your way in or out,” Loeper said in 2015 about the experiences.

“You can feel the rain beating on the side of the plane. It would rain so hard, sometimes the rush would cause the engine to shut down. When you hit the hurricane, the captain will say, ‘Commence penetration!’ They don’t even know it’s going to happen. They see it, then boom!”

Loeper remained close with fellow veterans on his squadron and attended annual Hurricane Hunter reunions.

At a 2009 reunion, Loeper encouraged fellow Hurricane Hunters to donate to Operation Shoebox, the Belleview-based nonprofit group whose volunteers pack and ship care packages for troops overseas.

The group gave $1,000 to Operation Shoebox, one of Loeper’s favorite causes. He spent most Monday afternoons volunteering with the nonprofit.

“He was a wonderful volunteer,” Operation Shoebox founder and president Mary Harper said. “He worked so hard for the troops. He’s a tremendous loss.”

Paul Tilson, of Viera, another Hurricane Hunter, remembered him through the years as a good leader who had a sense of humor that included making up funny sounding interjections.

“It was a lot of fun,” he said. “You banter back and forth on the way to a storm or on the ground.”  Tilson was looking forward to a mini-reunion with Loeper and others in a core group of Hurricane Hunters that stayed close with each other. They planned to do something in Central Florida so they could be close to him.  “Instead,” he said, “we’re going to a funeral.”

A community weather asset Loeper — who held the title of staff meteorologist with the radio station — kept residents informed about weather phenomena in the community that impacted their lives.

He was there for routine seasonal events like heat and cold spells, and he was there for destructive storms like the Groundhog Day tornado in 2007 and Hurricane Irma last year.

“He would get up at 3:30 a.m. to get the most up to date information on the weather, be on the air from 6 to 10 a.m., and then he’d call again in the afternoon,” Kane said. “Especially with the past hurricane. He and I were together that day in the studio. He was reporting exactly what was happening.”

Loeper’s work might not have been possible without the army of volunteer weather spotters he volunteered, now more than 70 Villagers strong.

And he made sure his spotters were appreciated, said Joe McElwee, one of the first residents to get involved.  “Karl worked hard trying to recognize the people involved in this volunteer activity, showcasing them on the radio and recognizing their birthdays on the radio,” said McElwee, of the Village of Glenbrook.

Following the Groundhog Day tornado, Loeper and McElwee worked together to improve the reception of the National Weather Service’s Sumter County transmitter in Sumterville.  They became close friends through working together.

“Karl was a highly experienced and knowledgeable professional in his field, and we were extremely fortunate to have his talents in The Villages,” McElwee said.

He also made countless appearances as a guest speaker at various club and neighborhood group meetings in The Villages, where he spoke about severe weather in Florida.

This outreach proved valuable for educating the public on why preparing for severe weather events is important, said Dan Noah, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Ruskin. Noah worked alongside Loeper for four years at the weather service.

Loeper also helped Noah get involved in his own outreach to Villagers. They both appeared regularly at The Villages’ annual Hurricane Expo, which presents information on preparing for hurricanes and other severe weather events.

“Once you leave the National Weather Service, you don’t stop loving weather,” Noah said. “And Karl loved weather.”

Saying farewell – “Funeral arrangements will be made after Easter,” said Patty Loeper, Karl’s wife.  Funeral mass will be Monday, April 9, 2018 10:00 AM at St. Mark The Evangelist Catholic Church.  Inurnment will be at Florida National Cemetery with honors presented by the US Navy.  In lieu of flowers, the family encourages people to give memorial donations to Operation Shoebox in his memory.  Donations can be mailed to: Operation Shoebox, 8360 East Highway 25, Belleview, Florida, 34420.

Arrangements entrusted with HIERS-BAXLEY Funeral & Cremation Life Event Center, 3975 Wedgewood Lane, The Villages, FL 32162.  Sentiments may be left online at www.hiers-baxley.com.