Dick Skaggs served on the faculty in geography at the University of Minnesota from 1967 through 2005, rising from assistant professor to professor.  He was a senior post-doctoral fellow at the National Center for Atmospheric Research and a vising professor at the University of Wisconsin, Madison and University College London.  As a physical geographer, Dick specialized in climatology teaching a variety of climatology courses and seminars and doing climatological research on severe local storms, drought, and climate change in the upper mid-west.  His publications appeared in a variety of journals from the Annals of the AAG to the Monthly Weather Review, the Journal of Climate, and Geographical Analysis.  In addition to his teaching and research, Dick participated in academic administration serving as department chair for 11 years; associate vice president for arts, sciences, and engineering; and interim dean for academic affairs of the college of liberal arts.