John Kenneth Winner

John Kenneth Winner, a long-time resident of Annapolis, passed away November 15, 2017 at Anne Arundel Medical Center from complications following surgery.

The son of Charles Winner and Wilma Lewright Winner, he was born August 13, 1931 in St. Petersburg, Florida, and raised by his father in Washington D.C. He grew up on Capitol Hill, where in his words, “I had the most elaborate homework/study venue for a poor child that one could imagine. The Library of Congress was one of my most frequent hangouts.”

He graduated from Eastern High School in the spring of 1950 and enrolled at Wilson Teachers’ College (now part of the University of the District of Columbia), but facing the likelihood of being drafted during the Korean War, he enlisted in the Navy where he trained and served in the Naval Medical Corps at the Naval Air Station hospital in Corpus Christi, Texas from 1952 until 1954.

Resuming his studies at Wilson in 1954, he graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree in 1956 and taught mathematics, first at Southern Junior/Senior High School (Anne Arundel County) then as Assistant Professor at the University of Maryland.

In 1958 Mr. Winner was recruited into the nascent computer industry.

At Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Lab and successive Washington area technology companies, he specialized in computer simulations and systems that supported US Military Air Defense and Naval Systems during the Cold War. His reputation in military computer systems led to a position with Planning Research Corporation (PRC) lasting for 16 years, when he launched his independent consulting company with such clients as American Production and Inventory Controls Society (APICS) and Vie de France bakeries. Even after retirement he continued developing computer applications for commercial clients, and was always available to advise and assist family members, friends and community organizations with computer projects and issues.

John Winner was a true Renaissance man. Combining his lifelong love of the sea and sailing with carpentry skills learned from his father, he built a trimaran sailboat while still in his teens and restored an 1890s Chesapeake Bay skipjack in the 1950s. Over the years he owned and maintained a series of sailboats, making numerous enjoyable trips from the Chesapeake Bay to Florida and back with family and friends.

With the help of his father he built his family’s home in the Selby on the Bay community in 1952. Subsequent projects included an indoor swimming pool in their Davidsonville home in 1962 and a music room which he designed and helped build as an addition to the current home in Annapolis.

Another passion of his was music. With his mellow bass-baritone voice, he figured prominently in the musical life of Annapolis and surrounding communities in the sixties and seventies as soloist in churches, choral groups, opera and musical theater.

He performed leading roles in “Little Mary Sunshine” and “The Fantasticks” (The Colonial Players); one-act operas “The Night Bells” and “The Marriage Contract” (Mayo Players at the first Annapolis Fine Arts Festivals); Menotti’s opera “The Medium” (Annapolis Opera, 1972); and “Brigadoon” (Annapolis Summer Garden Theater), among others.

Mr. Winner is survived by his wife, Ellen Chalfin Winner, three children from his first marriage to Ruth Anna Bernard Winner: a daughter, Dana Lee Winner (husband, Khalid Juhail) and two sons, William Kenneth Winner (wife, Julie Scheyer), and Karl Winner (wife, Susan Shipley Winner); two sisters, Marion Bauer and Elizabeth Haney, four grandchildren, Erika and Blake Winner, Laila Winner (husband, Saurabh Asthana), and May Arden; Alison Fitts (mother of Laila and May); a great-grandson, Vayu Winner Asthana; three step-daughters, Sarah Privler, Jessica Privler (husband, Brock Morgan) and Julie Privler (husband, Nicolas Pierrot), four step-grandchildren, Béla and Wren Morgan and Damien and Gabriel Pierrot-Privler, and numerous nieces and nephews.

Although Parkinson’s disease, diagnosed in 2009, was not directly the cause of John Winner’s death, the progression of the disease increasingly compromised his quality of life. Anyone so inclined can make a donation in his memory to the Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s Research.