Frank Field Dies: Meteorologist On New York Television For More Than 40 Years Was 100

Dr. Frank Field, the first meteorologist in New York television news and later a presenter and commentator for network programs on science, space and medicine, died Saturday in Florida. He was 100.

His death was announced by WNBC-TV in New York, where Field began his broadcast career in 1958.

He did not have a college degree in meteorology. His doctorate was in optometry, a profession he pursued for a time before television. Dr. Field’s title was derived from being a weather forecaster in the military. That earned him recognition as a meteorologist by the American Meteorological Society, which gave him its “Seal of Approval,” an honor given to those who provide “sound delivery of weather information to the general public.”

Beyond the weather, he hosted the programs Medical Update and Health Field. He was best known for his work publicizing the Heimlich maneuver, a procedure used to save choking victims. Field brought in Dr. Henry J. Heimlich, the creator, to the studio for a demonstration.

Field received a citation at the New York Emmy Awards in 1975 for “reporting developments in the applied sciences.” He was also a fellow at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York, where he studied the relationship between weather and health.

Field left NBC in 1984 for CBS, where he worked for 11 years. He later worked at New York’s WNYW and WWOR. He retired in 2004.

Fields spawned two other weather forecasters, Storm Field and Allison Field, both who had careers in New York television. They survive him, along with daughter Pamela Field; seven grandchildren; and six great-grandchildren. Field’s wife, Joan Kaplan Field, died this year.