Will the real J.J. Clarke please stand up: Ottawa CTV weatherman, unhealthy J.J. with a liver disease, the J.J. arrested for threats on three persons or J.J. in his grave as one website reported.
J.J. Clarke was my favourite weather-guy since Percy Saltzman decades ago. Unlike Clarke, Saltzman became a star with dramatic explanations of the weather and his chalk-tossing stunts.
J.J. didn’t look cool or flashy, just an ordinary middle-aged man you might see in the Beer Store or the Marketplace in downtown Ottawa or almost anywhere. Over the years he grew on you and if he had a day off, you would ask, “Where is J.J. The weather isn’t reliable without him reporting it.”
J.J. did his weather news consistently but occasionally he’d interject with an interesting pun thus making him more popular at least to me.
He is mysterious but a loveable person. His legal name is Ron Rowat but no one who knows why he uses J.J. Clarke? He has kept the identity of his wife and his children if any unknown. Just as odd, he has family in Burlington but no names have ever been disclosed.
As a goodwill ambassador for CTV Ottawa he attended around 75 charity events a year helping raise millions of dollars for CHEO and other charities. As well, Clarke participated in annual telethons for CHEO and the University Ottawa Heart Institute. He also raised money for The Royal Ottawa Mental Health Centre and was an honorary chairman of the Foundation for the Children’s Treatment Centre. A remarkable accomplishment.
In November 2019, the city named a Kanata Park in his honour for his years of weather news and charity work.
Our favorite weather forecaster of Ottawa and the Valley has worked with CTV News for 35 years. When he went incognito in 2020, not an iota of information was revealed by either CTV staff or the press. I was so concerned I e-mailed the station every week and telephoned the station twice – all to no avail. There had to be an explanation.
He returned months later to give his final forecast before retirement- looking thin and haggard with his suit miles too big. Again, no clarification! No doubt he had been ill.
CTV management stated that “no one is more deserving of a happy retirement than J.J. Clarke.” But it has been far from the retirement J.J. had forecast.
Unbelievably, our legendary weatherman found himself on the wrong side of the news. Arrested for criminal harassment for alleged threats to an Ottawa Valley man and threats to three others in the Valley he petrified.
It all seemed a paradox – this man so admired for his work. He was sleeping in the back seat of his Cadillac when arrested, Jan 28. It just left fans of J.J.’s hanging by a thread.
After being released on bail from the notorious Ottawa jail in February, his lawyer said, “J.J. Clarke has been a pillar of the Ottawa community for decades. It’s clear that he is not the same person that Ottawa has known and loved.”
We now know that Clarke/Rowat, diagnosed with stage 4 liver cirrhosis, is living with friends. A family known for their generosity took Rowat in last summer after seen walking by their lakeside trailer. The family didn’t know the weatherman beyond having seen him on TV. A family spokesperson said to a reporter,
“He’s the kind of guy who would give you the world. He’s not the J.J. Clarke from the supper-hour news. He’s Ron Rowat, a regular person with regular troubles.”
Despite a rapid, sad decline from being healthy, to money troubles, and now facing criminal charges, he’s still quick to say, “I’m happy as a clam.”
Despite suffering with liver cirrhosis, Clarke said, “You have to live every minute of the day as best you can and look ahead. I have no regrets about the past.”
He’s described as a broke philanthropist with money troubles. Despite that, he still finds enough to deliver gifts to those less fortunate at the Ottawa shelter.
Will J.J. be judged for the indiscretions of a dying man who couldn’t help acting so out of character? I hope not. I will never be resentful for having to rush to catch his suppertime weather report – it was the best by the best.
