Bidding Adieu to Gridlock's Calm Voice
Houston's dean of traffic reporting, Marty Ambrose, dies from ALS
You may not have known 69-year-old Marty Ambrose by name, but you did know him by his skill. And his calm voice in the eye of the gridlocked storm.
If your morning commute has ever been disrupted in the past three decades by the sudden onslaught of a tractor trailer spill on I-10 (for example), you've most likely thanked Marty Ambrose's traffic clairvoyance wafting over the air waves. Ambrose worked for Metro Traffic Control until he retired in 2003, but came out of retirement in 2008 to sign on to the KUHF afternoon traffic beat.
Sadly, Ambrose's historic voice will no longer be the sound of sanity streaming through your car speakers during rush hour. Ambrose lost his battle with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (better known as ALS, or Lou Gehrig's Disease).
Dubbed "the dean of traffic reporting," Ambrose was diagnosed in April with ALS. "I apparently have had this for years," Ambrose told KTRK. "I missed two or three years by not knowing that. Now I just have to play the cards I was dealt."
And indeed, Ambrose never let ALS stand in his way. Despite the progression of the disease, his velvety vocal chords continued to grace KUHF afternoon traffic reports until last May.
We certainly hope that wherever Ambrose is now, the highways are conveniently congested and the drivers are beyond irate. After all, traffic was what he loved, and for his sake, we hope there's a whole lot of it.
