When Vice Provost John J. Cahir first warmed up to weather forecasting, not too many people actually took the predictions seriously.

"On some of the television programs, they almost literally had clowns doing it," said Cahir, dean of undergraduate education and professor of meteorology. "It was considered a diversion, something to lighten up on the news. I don't think anybody made any major decisions on the basis of what they said."

Cahir, who announced last week that he will step down from his administration post next year, used to think forecasting the weather was the greatest job he could hope to have.

Nearly four decades since Cahir first joined the Penn State meteorology faculty, his chosen field has gained a lot more credibility, he says, thanks in part to advances made by a few Penn State-educated weathermen.

During his early days at the university, Cahir hosted Weather World on WPSX-TV, a program that ran on weeknights.

"You'd sometimes get letters from people who'd say, 'On Friday night, could you make a forecast for Monday because we're not going to see you again until Monday night?' " Cahir said. "Of course, the truth of the matter was, we were grasping at straws for Sunday, never mind Monday."

Some of the first computer models forecasters used to peer into the future of the atmosphere relied on an imaginary wall at the Equator, Cahir said. It seemed simpler and took less time to focus on just the Northern Hemisphere.

"Until about 1980, we believed that that was a sound assumption," he added.

But most forecasts still lacked accuracy, until the day a few meteorologists suggested taking the invisible wall down and going global with models.

The improving computer technology was there to complement the broader view, and forecasts started hitting the bull's eye more often.

"It was just about that time you began to see people carrying umbrellas -- not because it had rained -- but because there was a forecast for rain. Before that . . . you wouldn't see anybody carrying one just because we said so," Cahir said.

As Cahir rose through the ranks of the College of Earth and Mineral Sciences, he looked up to Dean John A. Dutton as a mentor in meteorology and administration. In 1980, Cahir became an associate dean in the college.

Dutton, who also plans to retire next year, said Cahir made an impact in the department and college.

"There are many stories about how his concern and good guidance helped to rescue students from difficult situations," Dutton said. "He is a legend, a mentor and treasured friend to hundreds of meteorologists who learned about storm systems and weather forecasting from him here at Penn State."

Cahir and Dutton later helped pioneer the first-year seminar program in EMS. When he recognized the value of small, novel classes for bringing professors and students together, Cahir joined others around Penn State as an ardent believer in making the experience university-wide.

The vice provost also crossed paths with Joel Myers, founder and president of AccuWeather Inc. They shared an office as graduate students and received their doctorates on the same day.

Even then, Cahir recognized that Myers had a sensitive knack for forecasting at a time when the computer models were still peppered with errors.

"The idea was that these guys were sort of geniuses who had this special insight into the way the atmosphere would behave," Cahir said.

In 1993, Penn State administrators asked Cahir to join them in Old Main. In his eight years as a vice provost, he said he's been impressed by leaps made in the quality of the general education curriculum, especially regarding active and collaborative learning.

The significance of group work hit home for Cahir during a visit from a top executive at Procter & Gamble.

"She said, 'I will not appoint a person to a leadership position in Procter & Gamble until they can leave their ego at the door.' You've got to take that seriously, because Penn State students are going to be in that kind of environment," he said.

Before Cahir steps down on Sept. 1, he hopes to press the potential of another buzzword -- something he calls "deep learning."

Cahir said he might lobby to create a three-credit independent study course to allow undergraduates in all disciplines a chance at a capstone research project, akin to the honors thesis.

"Instead of learning on the surface and memorizing something . . . it's the ability to synthesize a whole lot of ideas, go out and get information from various sources, analyze it and draw some conclusions," he said.

Looking back, Cahir said he's had a fulfilling career that rarely stopped being fun.

"I wish for every Penn State student that they can have a life outcome like I've had, where in effect you didn't have to work at all," he said.