Life

Winder was born in Salt Lake City, Utah

Salt Lake City, Utah

Salt Lake City is the capital and the most populous city of the U.S. state of Utah. The name of the city is often shortened to Salt Lake or SLC. With a population of 186,440 as of the 2010 Census, the city lies in the Salt Lake City metropolitan area, which has a total population of 1,124,197...

 to a locally prominent family, whose main business was a large dairy farm (Winder Farms

Winder Farms

Winder Farms, headquartered in West Valley City, Utah, is an online grocer providing dairy and other grocery products to households in Utah and Las Vegas, Nevada.-History:The business was started in 1880 by John R. Winder...

). He attended Granger High School, where he had a reputation as a "wise guy" (his own term) for tricks such as parading a cow through the school's halls when campaigning for student-body president. After HS graduation Winder served in the United States Air Force

United States Air Force

The United States Air Force is the aerial warfare service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the American uniformed services. Initially part of the United States Army, the USAF was formed as a separate branch of the military on September 18, 1947 under the National Security Act of...

 (1951–1952), then attended the University of Utah

University of Utah

The University of Utah, also known as the U or the U of U, is a public, coeducational research university in Salt Lake City, Utah, United States. The university was established in 1850 as the University of Deseret by the General Assembly of the provisional State of Deseret, making it Utah's oldest...

, receiving a B.A.

Bachelor of Arts

A Bachelor of Arts , from the Latin artium baccalaureus, is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate course or program in either the liberal arts, the sciences, or both...

 in English in 1955.

Winder married Pamela Martin. They had three children, Ann, Kay and James.

Winder received an LL.B. degree from Stanford Law School

Stanford Law School

Stanford Law School is a graduate school at Stanford University located in the area known as the Silicon Valley, near Palo Alto, California in the United States. The Law School was established in 1893 when former President Benjamin Harrison joined the faculty as the first professor of law...

 in 1958. He was a law clerk

Law clerk

A law clerk or a judicial clerk is a person who provides assistance to a judge in researching issues before the court and in writing opinions. Law clerks are not court clerks or courtroom deputies, who are administrative staff for the court. Most law clerks are recent law school graduates who...

 for the Hon. Allan Crockett, Utah Supreme Court Chief Justice (1958–1959). He was a Deputy Salt Lake County Attorney (1959–1963). He was an assistant U.S. Attorney of District of Utah (1963–1965). He was a Chief deputy district attorney of Utah (1965–1966).

In 1966 he joined the private Utah law firm Strong & Hanni. In 1977 Utah Governor Scott M. Matheson

Scott M. Matheson

-External links:* from...

 appointed Winder a judge for the State of Utah's Third District. He served as state judge until 1979, when he was appointed as a federal judge.

Winder was a federal judge on the United States District Court for the District of Utah

United States District Court for the District of Utah

The United States District Court for the District of Utah is the Federal district court whose jurisdiction is the state of Utah...

, nominated by President Jimmy Carter

Jimmy Carter

James Earl "Jimmy" Carter, Jr. is an American politician who served as the 39th President of the United States and was the recipient of the 2002 Nobel Peace Prize, the only U.S. President to have received the Prize after leaving office...

 on 1 November 1979, to a new seat created by 92 Stat. 1629. Winder was confirmed by the United States Senate

United States Senate

The United States Senate is the upper house of the bicameral legislature of the United States, and together with the United States House of Representatives comprises the United States Congress. The composition and powers of the Senate are established in Article One of the U.S. Constitution. Each...

 on 4 December 1979, and received his commission on 6 December 1979. He served as chief judge (1993–1997), assuming senior status

Senior status

Senior status is a form of semi-retirement for United States federal judges, and judges in some state court systems. After federal judges have reached a certain combination of age and years of service on the federal courts, they are allowed to assume senior status...

 on 8 June 1997, with a reduced workload.

Judge Winder battled Parkinson's disease

Parkinson's disease

Parkinson's disease is a degenerative disorder of the central nervous system...

 in his final years, and in 2007 he ceased hearing cases, due to the disease's debilitating effects and the onset of dementia. He died on 19 May 2009 in Salt Lake City at the age of 76. He was preceded in death by his wife, and was survived by his three children (son Jim was the Salt Lake County Sheriff at the time of his father's death). He was buried on the family plot at Winder Dairy on 26 May.

Winder was known for his kindness and humility. A former Winder clerk told a newspaper reporter how Winder knew the first name of the person who cleaned his courtroom, and treated her with the same respect that he showed to attorneys.

Honors and awards

Within a year of being appointed to the bench, Winder was named Judge of the Year by the Utah State Bar

State bar association

A state bar association is a bar association that represents or seeks to represent all of the attorneys in a specific U.S. state. Membership in such an association may be voluntary or mandatory for practitioners in that state. State bar associations may be tasked with the administration of the...

.

In a 1996 poll of Utah lawyers conducted by the Salt Lake Tribune newspaper, Winder was the state's highest-rated judge.

Lawyers considered Winder to be an outstanding jurist. A University of Utah law professor described him as "the consummate federal judge".

Sources