Jim Gamble, former El Paso weather forecaster, has died

Former KVIA forecaster Jim Gamble died Wednesday morning of pancreatic cancer.

He was 60 years old.

In his career he worked 10 years at KVIA, five years at KTSM and five years at KDBC.

John Fausett, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Santa Teresa, N.M., said a person would be hard pressed to fiind someone more interested in weather than Gamble.

Fausett said Gamble, like most “weather weenies” as Fausett called himself and others, said Gamble was most interested in severe weather.

“One thing about Jim I always respected was that he had a wealth of layman’s weather knowledge that he gained by picking brains of meteorologists,” Fausett said. “He would pick my brain, then when I left KVIA he would pick the brains of the National Weather Service meteorologists. Even though he knew more than those claiming to be meteorologists, he would never take the title meteorologist. He respected the old school way of earning that title by going through the proper education and training and he just wouldn’t shake that even though standards were being lowered as to who would be called a meteorologist. I thought ‘wow.’ That wasn’t a necessary thing, but he did it.”

Fausett said he remembered that Gamble used to be kind of a nervous guy.

“He would worry about things,” Fausett said. “Relatively recently, he followed the lead of his parents and his wife and gave his life to the Lord. He just wasn’t worried anymore. He became more delightful to be around. In the midst of this change he was diagnosed with cancer. Even up to a couple of weeks ago when KVIA General Manager Kevin Lovell and I were visiting him, even in all that pain, he still was an encouragement to be around.”

He is survived by his wife of 40 years Jan, and their two sons.