Bob Cram, the cartooning weatherman who sketched humor into his hand-drawn forecasts on KING 5 in the 1960’s, died on Saturday morning in Seattle. He was 91.
“He always wanted to be known first and foremost as an artist,” said Cram’s son Doug.
Bob Cram was a World War II veteran, a commercial artist, and a skilled skier, who was well known within the Washington ski community. The Washington Ski and Snowboard Museum at Snoqualmie Pass even has an exhibit dedicated to Cram’s humorous drawings, which appeared frequently in ski magazines.
“Bob was a lot of fun, he was high-spirited, he was a really good guy, he was much-loved by everybody who worked with him and everybody in the community,” said former KING 5 anchor Jean Enersen, who once took ski lessons from Cram.
Cram was also a good friend of The Mazama Store, a family-run general store near Winthrop. They wrote a farewell message to him on Facebook.
"Perhaps Bob's most endearing quality was his ever-present smile and willingness to engage in a conversation regardless of how busy he might be," they wrote. "Bob and
'good wife' Martha made the Methow a much better place, and they are both sorely missed."
Cram drew pictures right up until the end. He recently illustrated a flyer which still hangs in the elevators at the retirement community where he lived.
“He did it because it was his passion, and he knew as a little boy he wanted to be an artist,” Doug Cram said, “and it worked out.”
