Norman Winningstad was an American engineer and businessman in the state of Oregon.
20 Facts About Norm Winningstad
2.
Norm Winningstad founded or helped to found Floating Point Systems, Lattice Semiconductor, and Thrustmaster.
3.
Norman Winningstad was born in Berkeley, California, to Chester and Phyllis Winningstad on November 5,1925.
4.
Norm Winningstad grew up in California and then served in the United States Navy during World War II as an electronic technician's mate.
5.
Norm Winningstad graduated in 1948 as an expert in vacuum tubes, which was the same year Bell Labs developed the transistor.
6.
Norm Winningstad then worked at the Lawrence Radiation Laboratory in his hometown for a few years.
7.
Norm Winningstad was married to Dolores, and they had two sons, Richard and Dennis, along with a daughter Joanne.
8.
Norm Winningstad moved north to Oregon in 1958, settling in the Portland metropolitan area.
9.
Norm Winningstad continued his education with a degree from Portland State University.
10.
Norm Winningstad left Tektronix in 1970 to help start supercomputer company Floating Point Systems in Beaverton.
11.
Norm 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.
12.
Norm Winningstad continued his entrepreneurial ways by helping to found Lattice Semiconductor in Hillsboro in 1980 and Thrustmaster in 1990, in Hillsboro.
13.
Norm Winningstad moved to the Oregon Coast in 1989, settling in Newport.
14.
Norm Winningstad maintained a home in the Portland area, and flew his helicopter between his homes.
15.
Norm Winningstad 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.
16.
Norm Winningstad, as a veteran himself, was a supporter of veterans and would attend memorial services to show his support.
17.
Norm Winningstad 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.
18.
On November 24,2010, Norm Winningstad died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound at the age of 85.
19.
Norm Winningstad killed himself at his home in Newport after suffering from an undisclosed illness that had caused him great physical pain.
20.
Norm Winningstad had started a company near his death to develop one of his last technologies.