His biographical sketches read like a who’s who of local, state and national organizations. From political groups to church groups to professional organizations, it was the way he conducted himself and his personal relationships that made him truly special and unique.
“He was good, honest and smart as can be. When he spoke on the floor of the Legislature, everyone listened because he was always well reasoned and articulate and impassioned. He was very powerful,” said North Dakota Attorney General Wayne Stenehjem. “He was a good friend, a good man, a good public servant and a very, very good lawyer.”
Winkjer, 86, died Saturday morning, April 25, at the Bethel Lutheran Home, Williston. His funeral services are at 1 p.m. on Thursday, April 30, at First Lutheran Church.
“The Winkjers lived across the street from us and they have been wonderful neighbors,” said Del Easton, former Williston High School principal and current director of The Coyote Foundation. Winkjer was born Jan. 19, 1923, in Wildrose and attended Wildrose public schools. In 1941, he attended the University of North Dakota in Grand Forks, earning a bachelor’s degree in political science in 1945 and a law degree in 1947. He was a member of the North Dakota Bar until 2006.
“Dean was a true legal scholar,” said Richard McKennett, senior partner of the McKennett Stenehjem Forsberg and Hermanson P.C. law firm, which was established in the mid -960s by Winkjer and Telmar Rolfstad. “His knowledge of the law and its historical significance was remarkable. Through Dean’s work as an attorney, as well as a member of the North Dakota Legislature, he surely improved the laws for the people of North Dakota. To me personally, he was my mentor when I first joined the law firm in 1969. Dean was always there to answer questions and to lead me through the challenges faced by a young lawyer. For his guidance I will always be thankful.”
"Dean was very involved in making Williston a better place to live,” said Tom Rolfstad, Williston Economic Development director and son of Telmar Rolfstad. “He was a family man, and a leader in church, scouting and politics. Dean was a proud Norwegian and I am sure that was one of the bonds that made his law partnership with my father a success."
His obituary reads, “One of his first clients was the Northwest Mutual Aid Telephone Cooperative in Ray, and he was its legal counsel for 48 years. His legal practice was influenced by the state’s first oil boom, and he became one of the leading advocates for mineral and royalty owners and small oil companies. He retired from his law firm in December 1998, and continued as executive director of the Fred and Clara Eckert Foundation for Children until March 2004.”
Easton and former Williston State College President Garvin Stevens said Winkjer was willing to share his expertise with those who needed it.
“When I was in the school business, Dean did a lot of pro bono work for the school,” Easton said. “Any legal work he did, he never charged for and it was really appreciated in those days when we had very little money to work with. He was a great help for us.”
Instrumental in the establishment of several local organizations, “Dean was always interested in making Williston the best it could be and he worked tirelessly to that end,” said Williston Mayor Ward Koeser.
The late Chuck Johnson, former school superintendent Leon Olson and longtime Williston banker John McGinley joined Winkjer to get The Coyote Foundation incorporated in 1987.
A document from the Fred and Clara Eckert Foundation for Children sates, “as the attorney for Fred and Clara Eckert, he prepared the documents creating the Foundation, secured its tax exemption and served as a member of the foundation and a member of the board of directors since 1963. He also served as foundation manager since its inception and on his retirement from the active practice of law, he continued in that capacity on a temporary basis.”
When the University of North Dakota-Williston (now Williston State College) was established, Winkjer spent 12 years teaching early morning government and political science classes.
“It was around 1956 when he started teaching,” said Stevens. “He was very connected with the Eckert Foundation and I was very active with the college foundation and he was one of my mentors with foundation work. As an attorney, he knew his stuff very well and was a great mentor for me. Plus he was very supportive of the college and our missions.”
A stalwart Republican, Winkjer wrote for the Republican National Lawyers Association, “In the spring of 1946, with two years of Law School under my belt, and a successful reorganization of the State Young Republicans, I was asked to fill a responsible chair in the Senatorial campaign. I was assigned the responsibility to carry our Party’s message in support of our Senatorial candidate over the radio stations in North Dakota. This was in the days before television and no recording devices available, so everything was ‘live.’ We lost the campaign but I gained the entrance into a political career that has entertained me these 56 years.
“Over the distraction of putting together a five-member law firm, I was able to hold both local and state-wide party positions. My only political regret is turning down a very responsible position in the first Eisenhower presidential campaign.”
Winkjer served four terms as a Republican representative of District 1 in the state House of Representatives. His obituary states his win in 1974 was determined by the flip of a coin because the vote was an exact tie.
“He had that quarter made into a tie tack,” said Stenehjem. “He won that election on flip of a coin, and he ran unopposed next session. He is a member of the Legislature that will be long remembered. We all (state legislators) have our stories about Dean.”
His obituary also reads, “As chair of the House Judiciary Committee for four years, and the House and Senate Interim Committee on the Judiciary, he led efforts to successfully adopt a uniform probate code, completely redraft state election laws and unify the state judicial system."
He also helped with the campaigns of statewide candidates while still in college, and he remained active at precinct, state and national levels, attending several national conventions as a delegate. He was on the Board of Governors of the National Republican Lawyers Association for many years and was a longtime member of the Federalist Society.
Winkjer’s influence on the political scene can still be felt today and will continue for many years.
“His family and my family were very close friends when we lived in Williston, and then we moved to Bismarck” said Stenehjem. “I had a visit with him when I was in high school and he is probably more responsible for my decision to become a lawyer than anyone, with the possible exception of my parents. He told me, ‘If you’re looking for a profession that offers challenges, and something different every day, you want to be a lawyer.’ I took that advice to heart and it was exactly what I was looking for. He was absolutely correct.”
Those who came into contact with Winkjer won't soon forget his influence or his impact on them.
“I knew him as a legislator and many years as a friend,” said North Dakota Supreme Court Chief Justice Gerald VandeWalle.
He worked with Winkjer when VandeWalle was with the Industrial Commission and Winkjer was a lawyer working to a great extent with those involved in the oil and gas industry.
“Dean was a practitioner who represented well the local mineral and land owners. In fact, he was probably a thorn in the side of the oil producing companies, but he fiercely defended the land and mineral owners’ rights,” VandeWalle said.
“One thing I was just discussing with someone in Memorial Hall (of the State Capital building in Bismarck) the other day at a reception for legislative interns, was when Dean was in the Legislature. I had just come onto the court and was naïve about some things. Dean wanted another judge for the Williston area and the court said no, we’re not going to ask for another judge in Williston. Well, Williston got another judge, due to Dean. He was very influential in the Legislature “ he was influential in whatever he did,” VandeWalle said. “He was a big presence, not one to sit back. It was just his nature.”
“He took on many causes and was a tireless fighter for the causes he took on,” Stenehjem said. “Years later, when I was elected to the Legislature from Grand Forks, where I was in my third year of law school, he was chair of the House Judiciary Committee and I was appointed to serve on the House Judiciary Committee. He became my mentor and my friend. I learned how critical honesty is in serving the public. Dean was tremendously honest and he valued his reputation above all. He helped me out with bills I was trying to get passed, but not by getting out of work, but by showing me how to do it. He took me under his wing as a freshman legislator and I’ve always looked up to him for that.”
A community leader from the time he was young, Winkjer was named the North Dakota Jaycees Outstanding Young Man of the Year in 1948, was a member of Rotary since 1948 and was named a Paul Harris Fellow, he was on the Williston Library Board and chaired Salvation Army and United Way fund drives.
If you’ve enjoyed driving Highway 2 now that it is four lanes across the state, you can thank in part, Winkjer. Gary Sukut, District 1 representative and a member of the committee that worked for years to get the project completed said, “Dean was in the Legislature and got a resolution passed supporting the four lane Highway 2. We used the resolution often when selling our project to the DOT and the governors. This goes back to the beginning of our efforts to four lane Highway 2. He continued to support me and the Highway 2 effort for the entire 30 years of the project. He was a great promoter of Williston and North Dakota and is a great loss to both. I will miss him as a mentor and a friend.”
However, Winkjer was more than his big public persona. On Aug. 24, 1951, he married Betty Septon in Williston and together they raised four children.
While helping put together his obituary, daughter Andrea Winkjer Collin of Bismarck was amazed at all her dad accomplished.
“Seeing all the different things he was involved in, the Theodore Roosevelt quote about being in the arena, it reminded me of dad. He was always involved in things. If it was a good cause, he was there,” she said.
The quote she refers to is from Roosevelt’s speech at Sorbonne, Paris, on April 23, 1910, which states, “It is not the critic who counts: not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles or where the doer of deeds could have done better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly, who errs and comes up short again and again, because there is no effort without error or shortcoming, but who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions, who spends himself for a worthy cause; who, at the best, knows, in the end, the triumph of high achievement, and who, at the worst, if he fails, at least he fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who knew neither victory nor defeat."
“I remember so many people he would take under his wing and have them at the house,” Collin said. “And the Boy Scouts, I remember them so well “ all the Boy Scouts coming to our house, sitting in the den to go over merit badges. And it was off to Boy Scout camps. He had three daughters and we three girls were fascinated with this Boy Scout stuff. Then my brother came along and he became an Eagle Scout.”
It wasn’t just the local boys he guided who appreciated his help. His obituary states “In appreciation for his Boy Scout leaders, Dean was an active Scout leader throughout his adult life. Although he never earned the Eagle Scout Award himself, Dean guided many young scouts to that goal as scoutmaster of Williston’s Troop 365. For his leadership positions at local, district and national levels, Dean was honored with the Silver Beaver Award by the Boy Scouts of America and the Lamb Award by the National Lutheran Council of the U.S.”
Yet, with all his projects and his causes, Winkjer’s family was not forgotten.
“He was able to do so much in the community, but we never felt neglected,” Collin said. “He included us. With all the political stuff, he took us along, to conventions, etc. I remember PTA meetings “ he didn’t just go to the meeting, he’d come home as the president. He was always ready to take up any good cause, and we were always part of it.”
Winkjer wrote in his autobiography for The National Republican Lawyers Association, “Outside of my church and my Party, my great joy is being the life mate of Betty, the mother of our four children, eleven grandchildren and I am ‘Uncle Dean’ to two nephews and a niece together with their children. Life has been good to me.”
An article published in the Williston Herald on the occasion of his 50th year as an attorney states, “Behind the politics, the personal note from President George Bush hanging on his wall-the church has played an important role in his life. ‘This is the law book,’ he stated, holding a worn Bible he received from his parents when he was 10 years old. ‘It is the first book I had in my library.’”
Winkjer was active in local, state and national levels of the American Lutheran Church, now the ELCA. He was active in the Lutheran Student Association in college and was a longtime Sunday school teacher, adult education and youth leader, deacon and council member at First Lutheran Church. He was also involved for many years with the Lutheran Social Services of North Dakota board, his obituary states.
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John Eric Rolfstad wrote on Apr 30, 2009 4:02 AM: