Winter, Hon. Gordon Arnaud (1912-2003)
Lieutenant Governor, 1974-1981
Winter was born in St. John's on October 6, 1912. He was educated at Bishop Feild College and the Loretto School in Musselburgh, Scotland. At 18, Winter joined the family firm of T. and M. Winter Ltd. where he held several positions over the next 40 years including clerk, director, president from 1959-1972, and chairman of the board from 1972 to 1986. Winter also served as president of the Standard Manufacturing Company and as a member of the Newfoundland Savings Bank advisory board. In 1946, he was president of the Newfoundland Board of Trade.
Winter was one of a group of St. John's business leaders who announced support for confederation during the second referendum in 1948. He was subsequently appointed a member of the delegation that negotiated and signed the Terms of Union between Newfoundland and Canada. When the provincial government was formed, in April 1949, he became the province's first finance minister. He did not, however, run in the provincial election later that year. He returned to business, and served a governor of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation and as chairman of Memorial University's Board of Regents. He resigned that post in 1974 to become lieutenant governor.
When his term ended, in 1981, Winter did not immediately retire to private life. In 1982, he was appointed vice-chairman of the royal commission of inquiry into the sinking of the Ocean Ranger, chaired by Chief Justice T. Alex Hickman. In 1989, at the request of Archbishop Alphonsus Penney, he served as chairman of the inquiry into charges of sexual abuse by Roman Catholic clergy in St. John's.
Winter died on August 1, 2003.
