FORECAST: VACANCIES Something in the air?

By DEBORA SHAULIS
ENTERTAINMENT EDITOR
NO, DR. DAVE WALKER of WFMJ Channel 21's weather team didn't just wake up one day and decide to be a minister.
"These things build. It's not necessarily a spontaneous decision," Walker says. "These things grow on you."
Walker's three-year contract as WFMJ's chief meteorologist will end in early September. So will Walker's TV career. His next job will be in creation science ministry as either a researcher or teacher.
Creation science is "kind of the opposite of evolution," Walker explained recently from his WFMJ work station, which consists of five computer terminals and various monitors that display weather radar, WFMJ programming and more. Walker munched on an array of raw vegetables as he watched the screens, worked on his 6 p.m. forecast and discussed his career change.
Learned of creation science
Walker, originally from New York state, was raised "in a big Catholic family," he said. He became a born-again Christian in 1985. One year later, he learned about creation science -- a movement that uses scientific data to support the belief that God is the origin of life.
Creationists, Walker noted, have less funding and less news media presence than evolutionists when it comes to spreading their messages.
"The majority of people are only getting one side of the story," he said. "I argue that there are other ways to look at the data, other world views."
There's evidence that suggests the universe may be only about 10,000 years old instead of billions, Walker said. If his ministry is in research, he may study the correlation between volcanic eruptions, ocean temperature and the atmosphere as a contributing factor to the ice age. Some scientists say ice ages date back 1 billion years.
Walker also envisions himself as an educator, perhaps in a collegiate setting. "Teaching is more in my family and my blood," he said.
Earlier career
This won't be Walker's first career switch. In 1980, he was doing atmospheric research for NASA. His job was secure, the pay was good and the work was interesting, but he wanted to try something else.
People wondered why Walker would cut his salary in half and move 1,000 miles to be a TV meteorologist. His girlfriend at the time called it "a pipe dream. ... We ended that romance fairly quickly," he said.
Walker had two degrees in meteorology when he decided to pursue a doctoral degree in environmental sciences from University of Virginia. "In a sense, my whole life was put on hold when I did that," he said.
Walker worked in three TV markets before he arrived in Youngstown. WFMJ was appealing to him because of its weather forecasting equipment. The station's Storm Tracker radar helps to distinguish normal rainstorms from hailstorms or tornadoes "in a flash," he said, snapping his fingers.
Walker remembers when his life mirrored that of Frank Marzullo, WFMJ's young weather anchor on its morning and midday news shows. When Walker first entered broadcasting, he felt the "electricity and excitement" of it, he said. There was a time when he couldn't imagine himself in any other line of work.
More recently, however, "My desire to do TV weather has been dropping at the same rate that my interest in ministry is rising."
What he has planned
Walker plans to attend the fifth International Conference on Creationism later this year at Geneva College in Beaver Falls, Pa. There he expects to meet at least 100 people from 10 organizations, all of which "may be looking for someone just like me," he said.
He'll take with him videotapes of a sermon he gave recently in a church in Johnstown, Pa. His topic was 10 reasons why he doesn't believe in evolution. He had 45 minutes to speak face to face with people instead of 21/2 minutes in front of two cameras, two news anchors and an unseen audience. He's adjusting to getting immediate feedback and reactions, but that education is fun, he added.
Relocation may be imminent, because Walker believes there will be "opportunities elsewhere that cannot be ignored," he said. Walker and his wife, whom he met in Virginia, have three adopted children and three grandchildren.
Wherever the road leads, Walker doesn't intend to carry regrets as baggage.
"When I'm on my deathbed, I don't know if I'm going to say I did it my way, but at least I tried a bunch of things."
shaulis@vindy.com