{{Short description|American engineer and businessman}} {{Infobox person |name = Norm Winningstad |image = Norman Winningstad 2008.jpg |image_size = |caption = Winningstad in 2008 |birth_name = C. Norman Winningstad |birth_date = {{Birth date|1925|11|5|mf=yes}} |birth_place = Berkeley, California, U.S. |death_date = {{Death date and age|2010|11|24|1925|11|5|mf=yes}} |death_place = Newport, Oregon, U.S. |occupation = Entrepreneur, engineer |alma_mater = University of California, Berkeley<br/>Portland State University |children = 3 }} '''C. Norman (Norm) Winningstad''' (November 5, 1925 – November 24, 2010) was an American engineer and businessman in the state of Oregon. A native of California, he served in the U.S. Navy during World War II before working at what is now Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. After moving north to Oregon, he started working for Tektronix before starting several companies in what became the Silicon Forest in the Portland metropolitan area. He founded or helped to found Floating Point Systems, Lattice Semiconductor, and Thrustmaster. Winningstad and his wife were also noted philanthropists in the Portland area, with a theater at the Portland Center for the Performing Arts named in his wife Dolores' honor.
==Early life== C. Norman Winningstad was born in Berkeley, California, to Chester and Phyllis Winningstad on November 5, 1925.<ref name="nnt">{{cite news|url=http://www.newportnewstimes.com/v2_news_articles.php?heading=0&story_id=25471&page=74|title=Obituaries: C. Norman Winningstad|date=December 1, 2010|work=Newport News Times|accessdate=5 December 2010|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110927211606/http://www.newportnewstimes.com/v2_news_articles.php?heading=0&story_id=25471&page=74|archive-date=27 September 2011|url-status=dead}}</ref> He grew up in California and then served in the United States Navy during World War II as an electronic technician's mate.<ref name="obit">{{cite news|url=http://www.oregonlive.com/business/index.ssf/2010/11/post_49.html|last=Tobias|first=Lori|author2=Mike Rogoway|author3= Richard Read|title=Norm Winningstad, high-tech pioneer and philanthropist in Oregon, dies at 85|date=November 24, 2010|work=The Oregonian|accessdate=1 December 2010}}</ref> After the war Winningstad continued in the electronics field when graduated from the University of California, Berkeley with a degree in electrical engineering.<ref name="obit"/>
He graduated in 1948 as an expert in vacuum tubes, which was the same year Bell Labs developed the transistor.<ref name="obit"/> As the transistor would replace vacuum tubes in most applications,<ref name="obit"/> Winningstad later joked that he "graduated technically obsolete".<ref name="obit"/> He then worked at the Lawrence Radiation Laboratory in his hometown for a few years.<ref name="obit"/> He was married to Dolores, and they had two sons, Richard and Dennis, along with a daughter Joanne.<ref name="Rogoway"/>
==Oregon== thumb|Lattice Semiconductor's headquarters Winningstad moved north to Oregon in 1958, settling in the Portland metropolitan area.<ref name="obit"/> There he worked for technology company Tektronix (Tek), near the city of Beaverton.<ref name="obit"/> While with Tek, he was later described as "one of its leading brains during its 1960s heyday".<ref name="Rogoway">{{cite news|url=http://blog.oregonlive.com/siliconforest/2010/11/contemplating_norm_winningstad.html|title=Norm Winningstad's passing ends an epoch in Oregon tech|last=Rogoway|first=Mike|date=November 27, 2010|work=The Oregonian|publisher=OregonLive.com|accessdate=2 December 2010}}</ref> Tek manufactured oscilloscopes, and later diversified into areas such as printers and even television production equipment.<ref name="Rogoway"/> Winningstad continued his education with a degree from Portland State University.<ref name="pbj"/>
He left Tektronix in 1970 to help start supercomputer company Floating Point Systems in Beaverton.<ref name="Rogoway"/><ref name="ABC">{{cite news|url=https://abcnews.go.com/Business/wireStory?id=12244245|title=Oregon Technology Pioneer Norm Winningstad Dies|agency=The Associated Press|date=November 25, 2010|publisher=ABC News|accessdate=2 December 2010}}</ref> At his new company, he received assistance from his old company in the way of simulations and early production of prototypes.<ref name="obit"/> Winningstad grew the company to 1,600 employees and annual revenues of $127 million, though he left and came back to resurrect the company before Floating Point went bankrupt in the early 1990s.<ref name="obit"/><ref name="Rogoway"/>
Winningstad continued his entrepreneurial ways by helping to found Lattice Semiconductor in Hillsboro in 1980 and Thrustmaster in 1990, also in Hillsboro.<ref name="obit"/> These, Floating Point Systems, and Tek helped create the Silicon Forest, which Lattice trademarked in the 1980s.<ref name="obit"/><ref name="pbj">{{cite news|url=http://www.bizjournals.com/portland/news/2010/11/25/norm-winningstad-dies-at-age-85.html|title=Norm Winningstad dies at age 85|last=Smith|first=Rob|date=November 25, 2010|work=Portland Business Journal|accessdate=2 December 2010}}</ref><ref name="editorial board"/>
In 1985, he was a supporter of a proposed sales tax, which ultimately failed.<ref name="editorial board"/> He moved to the Oregon Coast in 1989, settling in Newport.<ref name="pbj"/> He maintained a home in the Portland area, and flew his helicopter between his homes.<ref name="obit"/> His business ventures provided him with the wealth to own the helicopter, and at one time four Ferraris.<ref name="obit"/>
==Later years and death== [[File:PCFPA.JPG|thumb|Portland Center for Performing Arts's Antoinette Hatfield Hall, which includes the Dolores Winningstad Theatre]] He wrote ''The Area of Enlightenment: "Don't Confuse Me with the Facts, I've Already Made up my Mind"'' with ghostwriter Carla Perry, which was published in 2005.<ref name="obit"/> Winningstad, as a veteran himself, was a supporter of veterans and would attend memorial services to show his support.<ref name="editorial board">{{cite news|url=http://www.oregonlive.com/opinion/index.ssf/2010/11/c_norman_winningstad_1925-2010.html|title=C. Norman Winningstad, 1925-2010|author=The Oregonian Editorial Board|date=November 26, 2010|work=The Oregonian|publisher=OregonLive.com|accessdate=2 December 2010}}</ref> He also supported cultural institutions in the Portland area, such as the Washington County Museum, the Oregon Symphony Orchestra, and the Portland Center for the Performing Arts, which includes the Dolores Winningstad Theater, named after his wife.<ref name="obit"/><ref name="editorial board"/>
On November 24, 2010, Norm Winningstad died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound at the age of 85.<ref name="ABC"/> He killed himself at his home in Newport after suffering from an undisclosed illness that had caused him great physical pain.<ref name="obit"/><ref name="ABC"/> Winningstad had started a company near his death to develop one of his last technologies.<ref name="pbj"/> The technology was a product to record police interactions after they pulled someone over.<ref name="editorial board"/>
==References== {{Reflist}}
==External links== * [https://web.archive.org/web/20081121074800/http://www.aofe.org/author.htm Area of Enlightenment]
{{DEFAULTSORT:Winningstad, Norm}} Category:Businesspeople from Oregon Category:People from Newport, Oregon Category:2010 deaths Category:UC Berkeley College of Engineering alumni Category:Portland State University alumni Category:1925 births Category:Suicides by firearm in Oregon Category:Businesspeople from Berkeley, California Category:United States Navy sailors Category:People from Washington County, Oregon Category:Tektronix people Category:American technology company founders Category:Philanthropists from Oregon Category:Engineers from Oregon Category:Engineers from California Category:20th-century American businesspeople Category:20th-century American philanthropists Category:2010 suicides