Zachary Paciello

April 12, 2002

has a sense of cheerfulness about him. He has gained that cheerfulness through his hard work. Standing

at five-foot eight and weighing two hundred to two hundred and fifty pounds, he works hard to get the

weight off. That hard work has gotten him through life in the city. With his passion for meteorology this

weatherman and reporter can do it all and more.

featured weathercaster, and reporter on NBC’s Today show. Growing up in the city with his mother, a

homemaker and his father, a bus driver he graduated high school and then went on to Oswego

University to study communications. Yet instead in his sophomore year he began to be the weatherman

on the local TV station in Syracuse and thought he liked it. Taking only a few classes on the subject he

traveled from the cities of Cleveland to Washington, D.C. he didn’t return to NY until 1983.

for the six and eleven o’clock news and then a year later he became the weekly weathercaster for the

five o’clock, six o’clock, and eleven o’clock news. He has hosted his own TV show as well as

becoming a Website designer and even an author with his Don’t Make Me Stop This Car! which

centers itself around his life as a father and parent as first adopting his child Courtney to visiting fertility

doctors with his wife of eight years, 20/20 correspondent Deborah Roberts, and were able to give

birth to baby Leila Roker.

numbers of fans who are there to greet him. With charisma and charm he speaks to them

with sympathy for standing out in the cold. He can multitask speaking with many people as well as

being able to tell those viewers-at-home the weather and make them happy with his forecast of

hopefully sunny days and storm less skies.

"Roker.com," where he has a journal that has an entry dated "September 12, 2002. In that entry he speaks about his relatives and the worried voices of phone calls and family which include his oldest daughter.

"Relatives from all over were calling us, not familiar with Manhattan's geography, worried that we were in harm's way. Courtney called me from her school's administration office, worried that Deb and I might somehow be in danger."

It seems that because of how Roker acts around his family, he is loved and with that loved comes the knowing that he will always be cared for, as he will always care for his family. He also is troubled by the question his daughter gave him when she saw with him the planes crashing into the two towers ""Daddy, the building went down.... why?"" And he replied to his baby’s question with that he didn’t know why and can’t understand it either. Since September eleventh, he has cooked his way into the hearts of people by helping outreaches and food groups with feasts that only ones eyes can see so far. With that he hopes that he has helped those in need.

On the positive side, this wild and crazy nice guy loves to have fun. He goes to see the movies, the latest "Ice Age" where he gave a positive review on the movie. He enjoys spending time with his family but knows that he has to go to work every morning and though his baby girl Leila watches him on the television screen as soon as he’s gone to work, she goes "Thirteen! Thirteen!" in hopes to see Sesame Street. Al’s rewards have covered the receiving of two Emmys for weather forecasting and was twice named Best Weatherman by New York Magazine. He also holds the American Meteorological Society Seal of Approval.

With his co-anchor Katie Couric and Matthew Lauer, he has decided that he enjoy what he does and will do it until the day he dies. Though he was in the Phelps Memorial Hospital Center in Westchester for 11 days and then went home for a knee injury cause by his working out, he knows that thought he’s only forty-six he knows he will outlast everyone and still be that plump cheerful weatherman who waves to you when you pass by and will be willing to talk to you until you are out of breathe.