Santa Clara County CA Archives Biographies.....Ricard, Father Jerome Sixtus January 21, 1850 - December 8, 1930
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File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by:
Ila Wakley iwakley@msn.com October 30, 2010, 3:51 pm

Source: California and Californians, Vol. IV, Published 1932, Page 96
Author: The Lewis Publishing Company

     FATHER JEROME SIXTUS RICARD of the University of Santa Clara was an 
astronomer, a philosopher, a priest, a university professor and a weather 
prophet who, by means of a method he discovered, was able to foretell storms 
as long as a year in advance. By many his weather predictions were considered 
as accurate and reliable as the reports of the United States Weather Bureau; 
orthodox weather forecasters called him a remarkably good guesser. But the 
repeated verification of his "guesses" went far towards establishing the 
correctness of his method.

     Father Ricard was born in France on January 21, 1850, and died December 
8, 1930. He received his early education in Turin, Italy, and joined the 
Society of Jesus in 1872. A year later he came to America and became a student 
at Woodstock College, in Maryland. In 1887 he received his Doctor of 
Philosophy degree from the University of Santa Clara, where he was a teacher 
of philosophy and astronomy for many years.

     There, in an observatory amid the vines and trees of the old Santa Clara 
Mission, "the padre of the rains" steadily observed and studied sunspots and 
traced a relationship between them and the storms of the earth by means of 
which he was able to predict, with considerable accuracy, weather changes long 
in advance. He began with a period of ten days, and his forecasting was 
repeatedly correct. Then he predicted the weather changes for a month, next 
for two months, and later he foretold the weather changes of a whole season. 
Throughout the Santa Clara and San Joaquin Valleys there were agriculturists 
who relied upon his forecasting and who often profited by it. To them, and to 
most of California, he was the beloved padre of the rains.

     Father Ricard was a member of many scientific and religious societies, in 
this country and abroad. In addition to his regularly issued weather reports, 
he contributed to the daily newspapers and the scientific magazines. Although 
his method was not sanctioned by the weather forecasters, it is probably that 
he was a great deal more than merely a "good guesser." His predictions were 
verified again and again, and they were of untold value to the farmers of the 
state.

     As a teacher Father Ricard's gentle, kindly, philasophic personality 
influenced and inspired the students of the University of Santa Clara. Many of 
the distinguished men of the state have been his students. He was an unusual 
example of the patient scientist and the aloff, untiring scholar.

     The Mission of Santa Clara has figured in California history for more 
than 150 years. Father Ricard, the padre of the rains, in his modern and 
scientific way was a worthy successor of those padres who were the true 
founders of California.—By Eric Howard.

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