Frank Happersett Wells
On 31 July 1938, Frank H. Wells was born in West Chester, Pennsylvania. Following a move to Florida on 1953, he graduated with the class of �56 at Pompano Beach High School. After earning an Associate of Arts at the University of Florida and later receiving his draft notice, he enlisted in the Air Force in 1961 and served as a Radio Intercept Analyst in Key West during the Cuban Crisis. Through the Airman Commissioning and Education Program, he attended the Saint Louis University and received in1966 a BS in Professional Meteorology.
After completion of Officer Training School and commissioning, Frank served as a Weather Officer in Oregon, Vietnam (1968-1969), and Louisiana before being accepted by the Air Force Institute of Technology to attend University of Hawaii. After graduate studies in tropical meteorology (1971-1972), he was assigned as a Satellite Applications Officer and later Officer-in-Charge Satellite Operations at Nimitz Hill, Guam. In 1978, a 4-year tour at Air Force Global Weather Central in Nebraska as a Special Projects Team Chief and Meteorological Officer provided some variety. He returned to Nimitz Hill, Guam as a Typhoon Duty Officer and later Chief, Satellite Operations before retiring with the rank of Major in 1984.
Frank returned to Federal Service in 1985 this time with the Navy to become the first civilian Technical Advisor to the Director of the Joint Typhoon Warning Center (JTWC), Guam. Continuing in this capacity until 1998, when JTWC moved to Hawaii, he then laterally transferred to a Lead Forecaster position at the newly established National Weather Service Office, Guam. In 2000, he became the first Science and Operations Officer for the National Weather Forecast Office, Guam before retiring in 2004.
His accomplishments include the Department of the Navy�s Meritorious Civilian Service Award, technical editor for the JTWC Annual Tropical Cyclone Reports (1985-1998), author of the JTWC post-analysis report on Super Typhoon Paka (1997) that devastated the island, technical editor/author of JTWC Technical Note, Tropical Cyclones Affecting Guam (1671-1990). His program (on Guam) provided operation training and certification for the first Micronesian Meteorologist-in-Charge of Weather Service Offices on Yap, Pohnpei, Palau, Chuuk and Majuro. For thirty years, he has enjoyed working with and training Weather Service Forecasters and Satellite Image Analysts in tropical and satellite meteorology. Frank is married to Eleanor Frances Champion of New Bedford, Massachusetts. They have four sons: Peter, David, Steven and Eric.