George H. Winkelmann (1961)

Rest in peace my brother.  I guess I can fill in a few blanks on this one.  My brother took a wrong turn in high school and was a confused, albeit very talented, soul his entire life.  He lost the use of his right eye in an accident, the night of our senior prom, while he was working at the WSBT-TV studios in South Bend, as a stage hand. He did however, find a nitch in musical theatre while living in Texas and Oklahoma back in the 70's & 80's, after having graduated with a degree in Music Education and Conducting from East Texas State College.  He was in and out of electronics his entire life.  I don't know who would remember but, he was in band and orchestra at JAHS, and accompanied Mrs. Pate's Glee Club for three years.  He was musically gifted, and had perfect pitch.  He could sight read just about anything on the piano.  He also played the string bass, tuba, sousaphone, and multi-rank organ, foot pedals and all.  He and my dad built a remote control robot in the early 60's, inspired by Robby the Robot in the movie Forbidden Planet.  He also built a bianery digital computer in our basement, from old relays and parts scavaged from Indiana Bell when they were converting to transistors.  He eventually moved up North to Canton, OH, where he worked in IT at a local hospital.  He became close friends with a lady named Grace and a couple named Bill and Tracie Holland.  All three had good, and profound, influence on his life.  In the late 80's he moved to Ft. Lauderdale, Florida, to work in IT with an insurance company.  He floated around to several company's, and while working his regular job, began tinkering with computer programming, writing code, and working on the internet.  He started a company, he called Wincom, and designed and created a program for restaurants to use for online food ordering.  I think we missed an opportunity there!!  Eventually, Bill and Tracie moved to to Ft. L, also, and their friendship endured until John's untimely passing.  His health was never what one might call great, but an untreated wound on the right side of his foot, landed him in the hospital, and an agressive infection eventually lead to heart failure.  He and I were never close, but we did speak on the phone from time to time.  He was in Akron for one of our daughter's wedding, and did see his nieces and nephew a couple of times.  At the time of his death he had a massive collection of CD's and printed sheet music.  Bill came along side to remotely help me with the diposition of John's belongings and had John's piano shipped to me, where it currently resides at our daughter Kimberly's home.  Her oldest son, William plays it often.  I wish John was here to enjoy our 15 grand-children.  RIP brother...from your brother, G!