On Mick

Mick Winter Writer/Community Activist/Web Guy Mick Winter grew up on the Peninsula and went to college at University of California, Santa Barbara. “After two years, the university and I parted company”, he says. “Something about lack of studying.” He wandered Europe for six months, then spent four years in the U.S. Army Intelligence Corps, including language school in Monterey, and assignments in Germany and Vietnam. “In Germany we were running agents into the East Bloc. In Vietnam, I advised an undercover Vietnamese Army unit and hung out with the local CIA guys. Since we couldn't win the war on the outside, we played Risk and drank good Scotch all night.” He went back to UCSB, redeemed himself, and found himself with a degree in German and a career in advertising in Vancouver, B.C. “Then wanderlust hit me again, and I moved to the Canadian Rockies to write wildlife films. I shared a trailer with a grizzly bear named Willie. He didn't snore much but he did pace all night.” Returning to the States he eventually met his wife Kathryn through a shared interest in meditation with a spiritual school called Arica. They moved from San Francisco to Napa in 1980 and have been in the valley ever since. Kathryn runs Fair Housing Napa Valley and is a former Napa County supervisor. Their daughter Joanna is a grad student at Cornell, studying City and Regional Planning. [continued on next page]

From Napa Valley Life Magazine December 2007 "Intriguing Napa Valley Residents" issue