John Norton Winton Jr.

John Norton Winton, Jr.

John Norton Winton Jr. died peacefully at home in Seattle on January 30, 2020.

John was born on September 20, 1930 in Minneapolis, MN to John Norton and Janette Maine. He attended Phillips Andover Academy and went on to graduate from Princeton University in 1952 with a degree in History. After serving in the U.S. Marine Corps during the Korean War, John received an MBA from Stanford Business School in 1956.

John worked for executive consulting firms in New York and San Francisco in the 1960s. In 1962, John moved to the Pacific Northwest and lived in Bellevue with his wife Mary Haynes for over thirty years until her death in 1995. Together with their two children, they enjoyed a family life that included hiking and fishing in the mountains of the Northwest as well as golf, scuba, sailing and international travel.

In 1972, John opened his own executive search firm in Seattle, Winton Huntington Associates, serving industrial, retail,

financial, and artistic institutions in the Pacific Northwest. After retiring in 1989, John attended the School of Marine Affairs at the University of Washington, where he received a master's degree and co-authored a number of articles on fisheries management.

John married Jennifer Potter in 1996, and together they traveled the world, visiting countries on all seven continents, often with family and friends. Friends eagerly awaited their annual holiday card to see to which exotic places their adventures had taken them. John often accompanied Jennifer on her many work trips to Africa, where they were stunned and deeply moved by the contrasts between the beauty of the landscapes and the poverty of the people.

John was a lifelong, passionate and very skilled fly fisherman, wading and floating the waters of all the major rivers and streams in the Northwest, particularly Montana and Idaho. In his 80's, he went on a family float trip down the middle fork of the Salmon River in Idaho, where his only complaint was that there wasn't enough time to fish! He took up tennis late in life, playing weekly, and keeping fit through almost daily visits to his favorite YMCA gym.

John and Jennifer had a wide and close circle of friends with whom they enjoyed a rich and full social life. Their home was constantly filled with laughter, discussions on topics of all stripes, vigorous political debate, raucous games of charades, good food and wine, and much revelry.

John held himself with the bearing of the Marine he was, shoulders squared. But he was not rigid, either in posture or behavior. John had his own ideas but was equally interested in the ideas of others; he asked good questions and he listened. He read extensively and kept current on world affairs, politics, and economic trends. His warmth, positive energy and generosity brought joy to his family and friends as well as the larger community.

John and Jennifer supported a number of organizations in the arts and higher education and several nonprofit organizations focused on global poverty reduction, micro-credit for poor women, and land rights for small farmers all over the world.

In addition to his wife Jennifer, John is survived by his daughter Kate and her husband John Baldwin of Seattle; son Graham and his wife Lisa LaRochelle of Irvington, NY, and four grandchildren: Erin and Kelsey Burns and Sam and Emmett Winton. John and Jennifer enjoyed their blended family and brought all their children and grandchildren together often. To the end, John remained close to Jennifer's family as well, including her sons, Adam Silver of Los Angeles, Ben and Karen Silver of Seattle, and her daughter Eve Wright of Seattle. John is also survived by his brothers, Jim Winton of Seattle and Bill Winton of Portland and other loving family members.

John expressed the wish that any contributions in his memory be made to the William D. Ruckelshaus Center (https://foundation.wsu.edu/give/) or to the Falk School of Sustainability and Environment at Chatham University in Pittsburgh (https://www.chatham.edu/give/)