Winn Lowell Taplin

Winn L. Taplin (Age 91) Winn Lowell Taplin, 91, a retired senior intelligence operations officer in the Central Intelligence Agency, died peacefully on December 3, 2016 in Sarasota, FL after a short illness. He was born in St. Albans, Vermont on October 3, 1925, the second of three children. He grew up in Vermont, graduating from Bennington High School in 1943. He volunteered for the Marine Corps and was selected for a wartime engineering program, attending Duke University and the University of Michigan. At the end of World War II, he continued his studies in Ann Arbor, receiving degrees in political science and history. He returned to active duty in the Korean War, serving as a First Lieutenant. He received a Bronze Star and two Purple Hearts in 1951 at the Battle for Kanmubong Ridge. After leaving the Marine Corps, he returned to Ann Arbor and earned a Ph.D. in History. His dissertation was entitled “Vermont and the Continental Congress" and focused on Vermont's brief period of independence. Rather than embarking on an academic career, he joined the Central Intelligence Agency in 1956 as an operations officer focusing on Soviet and East European affairs. His intelligence career spanned 25 years and included overseas assignments in South Vietnam, Romania, Switzerland and Thailand. Upon his retirement in 1981, he returned to Vermont, where he served as a board member and then President of the Vermont Historical Society. He also taught university courses on the role of intelligence in international affairs, and authored a number of articles on intelligence and on Revolutionary War-era espionage. In recent years, he served as President of the Genealogical Society of Sarasota and of the University of Michigan Club of Sarasota/Manatee. He is survived by his beloved wife of 67 years, Ellajean Allard Taplin; his daughter Leslie Taplin Baumann of Valparaiso, Indiana and son-in-law Dean; his son Mark Allard Taplin of Arlington, Virginia and daughter-in-law Kathy Kavalec; his sister Claire Taplin of Sarasota and Southbury, Connecticut; his niece Sandra Leonard; his grandchildren, John Baumann (and wife Melinda Lee), Benjamin Taplin, Samuel Taplin and Gwendolyn Taplin; and great grandchild Penelope Baumann. Memorial contributions may be made to the American Heart Association and the University of Michigan's Clements Library at clements.umich.edu/support.php The family would like to invite you to a memorial reception Friday, December 9 at 4 p.m. at the Wiegand Brothers Funeral Home.