Donald W. Winne

Donald Warren Winne was born June 28, 1930 in Flint, Michigan. He attended Olivet Nazarene College in Kankakee, Illinois from 1949 to 1953, graduating with degrees in Business Administration and Social Sciences, and went on to the University of Illinois School of Law, earning his Juris Doctorate in 1955. He immediately enlisted in the U.S. Marine Corps, where he served as a First Lieutenant and Legal Officer.

In 1958, Don joined the Federal Bureau of Investigation, serving as a Special Agent in Louisiana on a variety of cases, including civil rights abuses. The FBI sent him to Las Vegas, Nevada in 1960, and in 1961 U.S. Attorney General Robert Kennedy assigned him to a task force investigating organized crime in Nevada. For meritorious service he was promoted to Bureau Supervisor in Washington, D.C., where he became a ghost-writer for J. Edgar Hoover. Choosing to remain in Nevada, he left the FBI and continued his public service with the Nevada Gaming Control Board. After a period in private practice with the Las Vegas firm of Denton, Monsey, Winne, and Rogers, he served as a Deputy Attorney General in the Gaming Division from 1965 to 1969, then took an assignment as a trial attorney in the Organized Crime and Racketeering section for the U.S. Attorney General's Office in Los Angeles.

Returning to Nevada in 1970, Don worked as General Counsel for the Nevada Insurance Division, earning the nickname 'White Knight' for his ethics and crusading tactics. He then found his most gratifying and longest-lasting career as a professor at the University of Nevada, Reno, teaching classes on the Legal Environment and Ethics within the College of Business from 1973 to 2010. During his tenure he served as Department Chair, Associate Dean, and Acting Dean of the College, and helped shape the fledgling Elko M.B.A. program. He was named Outstanding Teacher of the University in 1982, received the BJ Fuller Award for Excellence in Teaching in 2008, and was honored for Graduate Faculty Excellence in Teaching after his final semester in 2010. Donald Warren Winne passed away peacefully surrounded by his family on October 19, 2011 in Carson City, Nevada.