I first became aware of the work of Professor Ted Fujita in
early 1970. Likely, my first exposure to his work came from his
summary in the January 1970 issue of Monthly Weather Review of
the 1965 Palm Sunday tornadoes (pdf format), (I had an intimate
association of one of the tornado families that day: those that
struck Crystal Lake, Illinois where my uncle and his family
lived. The event would ultimately lead me to meeting my future
wife.) At around the same time I read that article by Fujita, I
studied his landmark report Mesoanalysis that had been published
in 1956 by the US Weather Bureau (research paper number 39). The
concepts put forward by Fujita fascinated me, but by then I was
leaning more toward the microscale aspects of weather than the
synoptic or severe storm disciplines, and never scientifically
pursued the topic further. Of course, soon Fujita would be a
common name for anyone enthralled or affected by tornadoes. Who
was this man who would become one of the greatest minds in
severe storm resea