Dalias Price left his mark on the Eastern and Charleston communities.

The former professor and chair of the Geology-Geography department died Saturday at the age of 96. He was instrumental in combining the two disciplines into one department.

Best known for his weather information gathering, Price submitted temperature and precipitation data for Charleston to the National Weather Service for 49 years.

Charleston’s historical climate station was moved to his home in the 1970s.

“He did them every single day for 49 years, not missing a day,” said Cameron Craig, a geology-geography professor.

A fall in January 2008 forced Price to give up his lifelong hobby of collecting weather data at the age of 94. Craig and a group of students took over for Price in October 2008.

“The National Weather Service called us in 2008 and asked us if we could take over the weather reporting,” Craig said. “We do these observations the same way he did them, continuing his tradition of accurate weather reporting. We will continue to do the utmost we can to keep the data observed accurately in his memory.”

His accuracy is not what he was best known for, however. His colorful descriptions of the weather, often found in the Times-Courier and Journal-Gazette, were his trademark.

“He was the voice of the weather for Charleston,” said Jill Nilsen, vice president for external relations. “When you thought of Dalias Price, you thought of his comments on the weather.”

Some of his more unique weather observations were recalled in an editorial written by Bill Lair in Tuesday’s edition of the Times-Courier and Journal-Gazette.

An extra heavy rainfall was a “frog strangler,” and the hottest summer of his life, 1936, was a “bearcat.”

Price was preceded in death by his wife Lillian.

Sarah Ruholl can be reached at 581-7942 or seruholl2@eiu.edu.