Cmdr. Edward M. Carlstead dies; led National Meteorologist Center's forecast division Edward M. Carlstead, a retired Navy commander and meteorologist who became a division chief at what is now the National Centers for Environmental Prediction, died Nov. 27 at his home in Fort Washington, Md. He was 88. The cause was cancer, said a daughter, Kathy Carlstead. Cmdr. Carlstead served in the Navy from 1943 to 1965 and was a meteorological specialist. Early in his career, he participated in nuclear testing at Bikini and Enewetak atolls in the Pacific. His final active-duty assignment was in Hawaii. After his military career, he joined the National Weather Service in Honolulu, where he became the meteorologist in charge of the Pacific forecast office. In 1978, he transferred with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to the Washington area and became chief of the National Meteorological Center's forecast division. Cmdr. Carlstead, a member of the Senior Executive Service, retired in 1984 and was then self-employed as a meteorological consultant for several years. Edward Meredith Carlstead was a native of Chillicothe, Mo., and in 1946 graduated from the University of California at Los Angeles under the Navy's V-12 officer training program. In 1953, he received a master's degree in meteorology from the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, Calif. He was a fellow of the American Meteorological Society, and his memberships included the Sigma Xi honorary scientific society and the Tantallon Citizens Association in Fort Washington. His wife of 59 years, Pauline Levicki Carlstead, died in 2009. Survivors include three children, Edward P. Carlstead of Denver, Kathy Carlstead of Kailua, Hawaii, and Diane Noveroske of Los Alamos, N.M.; a brother; and a grandson. Samantha Raphelson