(WGHP) — Roy Ackland, longtime host of FOX8’s community spotlight series Roy’s Folks, has died at the age of 84.
Ackland was one of the most recognized faces and voices of North Carolina television. The downhome weatherman, with that neighborly personality, brought us all together with “Roy’s Folks.”
Ackland was born on March 22, 1938, and raised in England until his dad, a scholar and author, moved the family to Texas. He served in the Air Force where knowledge about the weather led him to television.
In 1987, Ackland joined WGHP as a weatherman and started working with “Positively Piedmont” feature photojournalist David Weatherly. The two were a perfect match. The following year, after traveling from Murphy to Manteo, the series took on the name, “Roy’s Folks.”
For three decades the two traveled across the state and the South finding unique folks for WGHP viewers and television stations throughout the state who aired the series too. The two captured the best of the Tar Heel state sharing stories of everyday people and historic moments like the Cape Hatteras Lighthouse’s move away from the encroaching sea in 1999.
Many times the series included his wife and three daughters and gave way to the “Roy’s Folks Crafts Fair” which drew thousands of visitors and raised tens of thousands of dollars for The Salvation Army.
Ackland retired to Eastern North Carolina in 2017 with Chad Tucker continuing the beloved series now known as “Roy’s Folks with Chad Tucker.”
