Former EADT and Evening Star weatherman Ken Blowers has died suddenly, just a few weeks before celebrating his 90th birthday.
Kenneth Everson Blowers was known by all his colleagues as “Keb” and was a talented artist who was able to produce cartoons, maps and general graphics for the newspaper.
He also had a keen interest in aviation and wrote about aircraft for both newspapers.
He joined the EADT company in January 1951 after studying at the Ipswich School of Art and the London School of Printing and Graphic Arts.
He left the company in 1958 but returned in 1962 and remained with the newspapers until he took early retirement from full-time work in November 1991.
He carried on working for the newspapers part-time as weather correspondent and cartoonist until 2009.
He kept immaculate weather notes from his own weather station in Ipswich and by the end of 1991 he had completed 30,000 observations.
Whenever there was unusual weather he would instantly be able to say how much rain had fallen, what the temperature had been, or tell us how long it had been since we had a good soaking when drought warnings were issued.
One of Mr Blowers’ specialities was knowing roughly how many gallons of water had fallen on Ipswich after measuring his rain gauge in the morning.
His son-in-law Greg Howett said his interest in weather had continued to the very end – he had installed a new weather station in his garden only last year. He carried on taking measurements which will have provided a valuable record of the town’s weather over nearly 70 years.
Mr Blowers died on January 11, and Mr Howett said he had been in good health until the very end.
He said: “He had been shopping near his home, had driven back and unloaded his groceries from the car and collapsed. It was very sudden. We had been planning a birthday celebration for next month, it was very sudden indeed.”
Mr Blowers’ wife Marjorie died in 2014 and his daughter Julie had died in 2012 – but he had a wide circle of friends.
His funeral service will be held at the Seven Hills Crematorium on February 19 at 10.30am. All his friends and former colleagues will be welcome to attend.
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