Winton, David Judson, 1897-

David Judson Winton was born in Wausau, Wisconsin, in 1897, the son of Charles Joel Winton and Helen Smith Winton. His sister, Helen Winton Jones (Mrs. Carl Waring Jones), was born in 1890, and his brother, Charles Joel Winton, Jr., was born in 1899. David Winton married Katherine Decker, daughter of Edward W. Decker, in 1921. Three children were born to them: Margaret (Mrs. Clifford F. Anderson) in 1922; Katherine (Mrs. Rowland Evans) in 1925; and David Michael in 1928.

Winton's elementary education began in the public schools of Wausau and was continued at the Emerson Public Grade School in Minneapolis after the family moved there in 1909. He finished his elementary education at Blake School in 1916, and in 1916 he entered Princeton University. His formal education was interrupted in May 1917, when he joined the American Field Service Ambulance Corps, serving in France with the French army. Later he served in the Tank Corps of the A.E.F., was wounded, and was awarded the DSC and the purple heart. After his discharge from the American army in 1919, he returned to Princeton and was graduated in 1920 with his regular class. The Princeton degree was given by special faculty dispensation of three sets of final exams in place of the customary eight sets.

A member of a family that had been in the lumber business for a generation, David Winton became a lumberman. He began his career working in logging camps and finally settled in Minneapolis where he became head of the Winton companies with his brother Charles. Among the Winton companies were the Winton Lumber Company, Winton Company, The Pas Lumber Company Ltd., United Lumber Yards, Winton Lumber Sales Company, Kenwood Oil Company, Amador Lumber Company, Winton Oregon Timber Company, Addison Oil Company, Baldridge Logging Company, Inc., and Siskiyou-Minnesota Timber Company. He also served on the boards of several other organizations, including Consolidated Freightways and the Spokane International Railway Company. He became receiver of the Exchange National Bank of Coeur d'Alene, Idaho, in 1933, which paid out 100 cents on each dollar deposit. Winton was director of the old National Bank Corporation of Spokane.

During the 1940s he took leave from directing the Winton firms and served the U.S. government. He was chief of the Pulp and Paper Division of the War Production Board in 1942; chief of the WPB lumber mission to England in 1943; director of Region 12 of WPB in 1944; special assistant to the chairman of WPB in 1945; special assistant to the Assistant Secretary of State in 1947; and deputy to the Assistant Secretary of the Army in 1949. He was a member of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade Conference held in Geneva, Switzerland in 1961-1962.

Winton was a trustee of a number of other organizations. Among them were Blake School, where he was Vice President for some years, and Macalester College, where he was Board Chairman for some time. He was Chairman of the Board of the National Policy Committee; Trustee of Washburn Home; Vice President of the Minnesota Historical Society; Trustee of Forest History Foundation; Trustee of Minnesota Association for Mental Health; a member of the U.S. National Committee for the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization; and a member of United World Federalists and the Atlantic Union Committee. He was a member of the Canadian-American Committee and the British-American Committee and also a Trustee of the National Planning Association. He was a founding member of the Minnesota Citizens Committee on Crime and Delinquency.

The biographical data given above was drawn from the papers and from conversations with David Winton.

From the guide to the David J. Winton papers., 1929-1973., (Minnesota Historical Society)