Bob Staples (left) and Doug Forsyth (right) were given the honor of "Topping Off" the new National Weather Center by attaching the U.S. flag to the 50 ft. tower (the highest point on the building)
National Weather Center heroes
NSSL's Doug Forsyth, along with others, had a vision. What would it be like to have all of the weather research in Norman housed in one building? Consolidating staff and students could potentially facilitate some of the most advanced and cutting-edge research in the world. Back in 1994, the Norman Consolidation Project was formed to create the best design to help all groups achieve their goals, and Doug was the NOAA Program Manager. His involvement progressed to spending countless hours developing diagrams and floorplans-- all this in addition to his day job. Doug worked tirelessly on behalf of all the NOAA units during design, construction and managing the move to the National Weather Center (NWC).
Bob Staples was Doug's right-hand-man, working on-site for the past three years, including weekends, holidays, and nights. Bob was the troubleshooter, dealing with water in the auditorium and skunks in the building, in addition to conducting tours for visitors, politicians, government officials and others during the entire building process.
Both Doug and Bob attended weekly planning and constructions meetings, and an infinite number of negotiations with architects, construction personnel, and NOAA and OU future tenants. We appreciate their dedication and good-natured way of handling crises.
Many others, including NSSL's IT department, Dena Grose, Linda Skaggs, Paul Griffin, and NSSL technician staff made herculean efforts to make the transition as smooth as possible for NSSL employees. The staff worked nights and weekends preparing for and accomplishing the move that included a long list of tasks.
The NWC building was dedicated on September 29, 2006,
attended by Deputy Secretary of Commerce David A. Sampson, Assistant Administrator
for the National Weather Service David L. Johnson and Rick Spinrad, Assistant
Administrator for Oceanic and Atmospheric Research. 
The recently completed National Weather Center (left) and a view to the north from the NWC of the research radars still located at the old site (right).