C. Norman (Norm) Winningstad (November 5, 1925 – November 24, 2010) was an American engineer and businessman in the state of

Oregon Oregon () is a U.S. state, state in the Pacific Northwest region of the Western United States. The Columbia River delineates much of Oregon's northern boundary with Washington (state), Washington, while the Snake River delineates much of it ...

. A native of

California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...

, he served in the U.S. Navy during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

before working at what is now

Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL), commonly referred to as the Berkeley Lab, is a United States Department of Energy National Labs, United States national laboratory that is owned by, and conducts scientific research on behalf of, t ...

. After moving north to Oregon, he started working for

Tektronix Tektronix, Inc., historically widely known as Tek, is an American company best known for manufacturing test and measurement devices such as oscilloscopes, logic analyzers, and video and mobile test protocol equipment. Originally an independent ...

before starting several companies in what became the

Silicon Forest Silicon is a chemical element with the symbol Si and atomic number 14. It is a hard, brittle crystalline solid with a blue-grey metallic luster, and is a tetravalent metalloid and semiconductor. It is a member of group 14 in the periodic tab ...

in the

Portland metropolitan area The Portland metropolitan area is a metro area in the U.S. states of Oregon and Washington centered on the principal city of Portland, Oregon. The U.S. Office of Management and Budget (OMB) identifies it as the Portland–Vancouver–Hillsboro, ...

. He founded or helped to found

Floating Point Systems Floating Point Systems, Inc. (FPS), was a Beaverton, Oregon vendor of attached array processors and minisupercomputers. The company was founded in 1970 by former Tektronix engineer Norm Winningstad, with partners Tom Prince, Frank Bouton and Robe ...

Lattice Semiconductor Lattice Semiconductor Corporation is an American semiconductor company specializing in the design and manufacturing of low power, field-programmable gate arrays (FPGAs). Headquartered in the Silicon Forest area of Hillsboro, Oregon, the company ...

, and

Thrustmaster Thrustmaster is an American-French designer, developer and manufacturer of joysticks, game controllers, and steering wheels for PCs and video gaming consoles. It has licensing agreements with third party brands as Airbus, Boeing, Ferrari, Gra ...

. Winningstad and his wife were also noted philanthropists in the Portland area, with a theater at the

Portland Center for the Performing Arts Portland's Centers for the Arts (stylized as Portland'5 Centers for the Arts), formerly known as the Portland Center for the Performing Arts (PCPA), is an organization within Metro that runs venues for live theatre, concerts, cinema, small confer ...

named in his wife Dolores' honor.

Early life

C. Norman Winningstad was born in

Berkeley, California Berkeley ( ) is a city on the eastern shore of San Francisco Bay in northern Alameda County, California, United States. It is named after the 18th-century Irish bishop and philosopher George Berkeley. It borders the cities of Oakland and Emer ...

, to Chester and Phyllis Winningstad on November 5, 1925. He grew up in California and then served in the

United States Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the maritime service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. It is the largest and most powerful navy in the world, with the estimated tonnage ...

during World War II as an electronic technician's mate. After the war Winningstad continued in the electronics field when graduated from the

University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California) is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. Established in 1868 as the University of California, it is the state's first land-grant u ...

with a degree in

electrical engineering Electrical engineering is an engineering discipline concerned with the study, design, and application of equipment, devices, and systems which use electricity, electronics, and electromagnetism. It emerged as an identifiable occupation in the l ...

. He graduated in 1948 as an expert in

vacuum tube A vacuum tube, electron tube, valve (British usage), or tube (North America), is a device that controls electric current flow in a high vacuum between electrodes to which an electric voltage, potential difference has been applied. The type kn ...

s, which was the same year

Bell Labs Nokia Bell Labs, originally named Bell Telephone Laboratories (1925–1984), then AT&T Bell Laboratories (1984–1996) and Bell Labs Innovations (1996–2007), is an American industrial research and scientific development company owned by mult ...

developed the

transistor upright=1.4, gate (G), body (B), source (S) and drain (D) terminals. The gate is separated from the body by an insulating layer (pink). A transistor is a semiconductor device used to Electronic amplifier, amplify or electronic switch, switch e ...

. As the transistor would replace vacuum tubes in most applications, Winningstad later joked that he "graduated technically obsolete". He then worked at the

Lawrence Radiation Laboratory Lawrence may refer to: Education Colleges and universities * Lawrence Technological University, a university in Southfield, Michigan, United States * Lawrence University, a liberal arts university in Appleton, Wisconsin, United States Preparator ...

in his hometown for a few years. He was married to Dolores, and they had two sons, Richard and Dennis, along with a daughter Joanne.

Oregon

Winningstad moved north to Oregon in 1958, settling in the

. There he worked for technology company

(Tek), near the city of Beaverton. While with Tek, he was later described as "one of its leading brains during its 1960s heyday". Tek manufactured

oscilloscopes An oscilloscope (informally a scope) is a type of electronic test instrument that graphically displays varying electrical voltages as a two-dimensional plot of one or more signals as a function of time. The main purposes are to display repetiti ...

, and later diversified into areas such as printers and even television production equipment. Winningstad continued his education with a degree from

Portland State University Portland State University (PSU) is a public research university in Portland, Oregon. It was founded in 1946 as a post-secondary educational institution for World War II veterans. It evolved into a four-year college over the following two decades ...

. He left Tektronix in 1970 to help start

supercomputer A supercomputer is a computer with a high level of performance as compared to a general-purpose computer. The performance of a supercomputer is commonly measured in floating-point operations per second ( FLOPS) instead of million instructions ...

company

in Beaverton. At his new company, he received assistance from his old company in the way of simulations and early production of prototypes. 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. Winningstad continued his entrepreneurial ways by helping to found

in Hillsboro in 1980 and

in 1990, also in Hillsboro. These, Floating Point Systems, and Tek helped create the Silicon Forest, which Lattice trademarked in the 1980s. In 1985, he was a supporter of a proposed

sales tax A sales tax is a tax paid to a governing body for the sales of certain goods and services. Usually laws allow the seller to collect funds for the tax from the consumer at the point of purchase. When a tax on goods or services is paid to a govern ...

, which ultimately failed. He moved to the

Oregon Coast The Oregon Coast is a coastal region of the U.S. state of Oregon. It is bordered by the Pacific Ocean to its west and the Oregon Coast Range to the east, and stretches approximately from the California state border in the south to the Columbia ...

in 1989, settling in Newport. He maintained a home in the Portland area, and flew his helicopter between his homes. His business ventures provided him with the wealth to own the helicopter, and at one time four

Ferrari Ferrari S.p.A. (; ) is an Italian luxury sports car manufacturer based in Maranello, Italy. Founded by Enzo Ferrari (1898–1988) in 1939 from the Alfa Romeo racing division as ''Auto Avio Costruzioni'', the company built its first car in ...

Later years and death

He wrote ''The Area of Enlightenment: "Don't Confuse Me with the Facts, I've Already Made up my Mind"'' with

ghostwriter A ghostwriter is hired to write literary or journalistic works, speeches, or other texts that are officially credited to another person as the author. Celebrities, executives, participants in timely news stories, and political leaders often h ...

Carla Perry, which was published in 2005. Winningstad, as a veteran himself, was a supporter of veterans and would attend memorial services to show his support. He also supported cultural institutions in the Portland area, such as the

Washington County Museum Five Oaks Museum, formerly known as the Washington County Museum, is a history museum in Washington County, Oregon, United States. It is located at the Rock Creek campus of Portland Community College (PCC), north of Beaverton, Oregon. From 2012 t ...

, the

Oregon Symphony Orchestra The Oregon Symphony is an American symphony orchestra based in Portland, Oregon, United States. Founded as the 'Portland Symphony Society' in 1896, it is the sixth oldest orchestra in the United States, and oldest in the Western United States. I ...

, and the

, which includes the Dolores Winningstad Theater, named after his wife. On November 24, 2010, Norm Winningstad died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound at the age of 85. He killed himself at his home in Newport after suffering from an undisclosed illness that had caused him great physical pain. Winningstad had started a company near his death to develop one of his last technologies. The technology was a product to record police interactions after they pulled someone over.

References

External links

Area of Enlightenment
{{DEFAULTSORT:Winningstad, Norm Businesspeople from Oregon People from Newport, Oregon 2010 deaths UC Berkeley College of Engineering alumni Portland State University alumni 1925 births Suicides by firearm in Oregon Businesspeople from Berkeley, California United States Navy sailors People from Washington County, Oregon Tektronix people American technology company founders Philanthropists from Oregon Engineers from Oregon Engineers from California 20th-century American businesspeople 20th-century American philanthropists 2010 suicides