Adnan Akyuz (NDSU)
FARGO (KFGO) – North Dakota’s long-time state climatologist has died.
Adnan Akyuz passed away with his family at his side last Friday.
Akyuz joined North Dakota State University’s School of Natural Resource Sciences in Jan of 2007. Akyuz had degrees in atmospheric science from the University of Missouri and Istanbul Technical University in Istanbul, Turkey. He was the state climatologist in Missouri prior to joining NDSU.
Greg Lardy is the Vice President of Agricultural Affairs at NDSU. In a statement emailed to the campus community on Monday Lardy said Akyuz was a beloved teacher.
“His course ‘The Wonders of Weather’ enrolled hundreds of students each semester it was offered. In that class, he shared with them an excitement for all things weather that his students will fondly remember,” Lardy said. “(Akyuz) worked tirelessly to ensure the states’ weather events were properly recorded with the necessary officials so that the state could document and apply for various federal disaster programs related to floods, droughts, and other weather events.”
Lardy said he would remember Akyuz’s positivity in the face of a terminal cancer prognosis.
“My last conversation with him in December focused on that—even in the face of a terminal illness he could find something to be grateful for. During that conversation, he fondly recounted the ways his former students had been reaching out to him during the fall semester looking for ways that they might help him. Those small acts of kindness by his former students touched him deeply,” Lardy said.
Akyuz was married with two grown children. He would have turned 63 Monday.
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