Art Lake and his wife, Ali, enjoyed a moment together at a Channel 10 reception in 2004 honoring his 60 years in broadcasting. Below, Lake on the air during his early years in the business. Providence Journal / Kathy Borchers

Photo courtesy of Channel 10 WJAR

SMITHFIELD — One of Channel 10’s original newscasters died early Sunday morning.

Arthur E. Lake, known as Art Lake to just about everyone, died surrounded by his family. The legendary WJAR-TV anchorman and weatherman was 85. He lived in Greenville.

“Like Del’s Lemonade, coffee milk and the Big Blue Bug, he has become a state institution,” Providence Journal reporter Andy Smith wrote in 2004, which was Lake’s 60th year on Rhode Island’s airwaves.

“Art’s been a part of the fabric of local broadcasting for generations of Southern New Englanders,” said longtime friend and colleague Frank Coletta in a news release Sunday from NBC. “Growing up in West Warwick, I watched Art on the air in the ’50s and ’60s, and his work was a significant part of my inspiration for my chosen career. His expertise and guidance helped all of us here at Channel 10. I raise my coffee cup in salute to him and thank him for all he has done for me.”

For his decades-long career in the broadcast industry, Lake was inducted into the New England Chapter of the National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences Gold and Silver Circles.

Teachers at Braintree High School, Lake’s alma mater, first encouraged Lake to pursue a radio career because they were impressed with his smooth voice. Lake got his first station job in April 1944 while studying radio at Emerson College in Boston.

On WJAR radio, he was a disc jockey for his weekday show, “Music for the Mrs.,” and an announcer for the morning show “Breakfast Tray.” The TV station WJAR arrived in July 1949, and the first newscasts were anchored by Lake and Russ Van Arsdale.

In those days, Lake told The Providence Journal in 2004, he and Van Arsdale had to drink Knickerbocker Beer, one of the station’s sponsors, throughout the show. They stopped because they were burping through the broadcast. Lake transitioned to forecaster after being disappointed with the weather report’s accuracy.

“I would read this glorious forecast about sunny days and mild temperatures, and I’d pack the station wagon and leave early in the morning for the beach with the kids and the wife, and then sit in fog for the rest of the day,” Lake said in a Channel 10 documentary.

And he was around for some of the state’s biggest weather events: water was up to the seats in his car during Hurricane Carol in 1954, and he worked the morning of the Blizzard of ’78 when a station van was stuck at the State House.

He partnered with Coletta on the morning “Sunrise” show in 1985, and one of his last duties for the station was reading the “First Birthdays” feature on “Sunrise.” He retired about three years ago.

“Art Lake was a part of the fabric of this state for decades,” Rhode Island General Treasurer Frank T. Caprio said. “With Chris Clark and Doug White also having passed, I am confident heaven now has the best anchor team anywhere.”

Lake is survived by his wife, Alicia, known as Ali to most, whom he met on a blind date in 1948, and their three adult sons. WJAR said the funeral will be private.

apina@projo.com