Tom Casey, a fixture on both radio and later television in the Altoona market, is being remembered by friends and former coworkers as a true professional, who had a special way with words.

Casey, whose real name was Tom Streb, passed away Thursday at the age of 78.

A native of Canton, Ohio, and a graduate of Notre Dame University, Casey came to Altoona in 1967 to work at WRTA-AM, where he did a little bit of everything, including broadcasting high school football and basketball games.

He left radio in the early 1980s to go to WTAJ-TV, where he became well known as “Casey the Weatherman.”

While working at WRTA-AM he hired boh Karl King and Charlotte Ames.

“He was a great guy,” King said. “He was a very folksy guy, easy to get along with and related well to the community. He had a lot of anecdotes and was a very good guy to work with.”

Casey gave Ames her first job in broadcasting in the late 1970s. They later worked together for years at WTAJ-TV.

“He liked my voice, and I could read well,” Ames said. “He didn’t like my name, said it wasn’t euphonic, (so) he changed it to Wendy (Chase). He was a character, a very smart guy, well educated. He had a great sense of humor. He was friendly, but he could be sarcastic. He could also be brutally honest.”

During that era, the radio stations all had morning teams and news reporters.

“It was a fun time to be in radio,” Ames said. “He enjoyed it, he had a great voice, it flowed. He was a natural communicator and very polished.”

Joe Shuta also worked with Casey at WRTA-AM in the 1970s.

“He was a terrific guy,” Shuta said. “His vocabulary was tremendous. He was great to work with. He was a true professional, and he had a way with words that was so impressive.”

Joe Murgo came to WTAJ-TV in 2006 and worked with Casey as he was heading into retirement.

Murgo called Casey a great communicator and said his ability to communicate through the television was amazing — an art he tries to teach to younger meteorologists.

“Casey was not a meteorologist, but he was a great communicator,” Murgo said. “When he talked to people through the television, I believe each person thought he was talking directly to him. He had a gift of communication that reached out to a lot of folks.”

Jim Frank worked with Casey at WTAJ from 1990 to 2004 as the station’s news director.

“He had a deep distinguished baritone voice that was unreal,” Frank said. “He could cut through the camera and speak to the viewer on an even level. He gave them the information they wanted and needed to know. He was a friend for life and a confidant for life and a really close friend of mine. He was an intelligent guy with a sharp wit and a good listener. He was a very unique guy.”

Carolyn Donaldson, who worked with Casey for several years at WTAJ, said he was an intellectual first and a gentleman always.

“He was a storyteller who used weather as his medium, a consummate broadcaster who connected with his viewers and listeners with his wonderful voice, great use of the English language, the right dose of humor and genuine and sometimes brutal honesty. He was a mentor, a colleague, a friend who offered his hand to help you and his heart to listen to you when you needed to be heard,” Donaldson posted on Facebook.

Kellie Goodman Shaffer, president/CEO of the Bedford County Chamber of Commerce, remembers working with Casey when she was WTAJ’s sports director.

“Casey was a gifted conversational communicator – he’d talk to the viewers like they were sitting across the kitchen table from him,” she said. “He was very funny, and he never took himself or the business too seriously. I feel lucky to have worked with him and I’ll think of him on ‘Hall of Fame’ weather days,” Shaffer said.

Amy Mearkle worked with Casey early in her career at WTAJ-TV. She had two memories that stuck out the most.

“I was in the studio doing a report, and when it was done and we were on commercial break he said to me, ‘Hey Spark, nice story. A good story has a beginning, a middle and end. You keep doing it like that and you can make it in this news business,'” Mearkle said. “My second memory was when he showed up at my going away party in 2011. He had been retired for a few years by then, and we didn’t get to see him as much. When he walked in it brought tears to my eyes, I was honored he would come back to say goodbye.”

In a 2014 interview with the Mirror, Casey said he got his nickname from his grandfather.

“Casey was my nickname,” he said. “When I was a little kid, my grandfather called me Casey Jones because I was a choo-choo train kid. When I worked in Augusta, Georgia and South Bend, (Indiana), I just went by the name Casey. I was Casey in the morning. Most people still call me Casey when they run into me, and that is what I prefer.”

Casey is survived by his wife, Patty, and daughters Jennifer and Bridget.

Visitation will be Friday, June 10, from 10 a.m. until noon and 2 to 4 p.m. at Sorge Funeral Home, Hollidaysburg, with a celebration of life immediately following.

For his obituary, please see Page A5.

Mirror Staff Writer Walt Frank is at 814-946-7467.