Stewart Winn
Like most of us, I began my modeling career when I was very young, starting with cardboard cut-out sets (remember them?) and then moving on to all kinds of other things, like Strombecker wood WWII airplane models, and old-timer automobiles (1919 vintage or older). But then high school and girls intervened, and I had to put it off a while.
After graduating Georgia Tech, I spent three years in the Navy on the Newport News-built carrier Intrepid and briefly renewed my childhood hobby by starting a model of the clipper ship Swordfish. I soon realized that if I rigged it, I’d never be able to move it around, so suspended it for 20 years. I finished it in 1978, and it was proudly displayed at the Museum two years ago. (There must be some sort of record here.) Ironically, I first visited the Museum in 1950 and was completely awed by the vast array of models in the Great Hall of Steam. I thought then what a marvelous place that would be to work; and here I am, 70 years later, working in the model shop! Who could have guessed?
The rest of my career between school and retirement was spent in construction management, working for several different companies, moving around the country frequently, and building everything from houses to nuclear power plants and rapid transit systems. After moving to Williamsburg in 2000 and taking up golf, I realized I better have a more sedentary hobby for later years, so decided to take up ship modeling again. One of my friends introduced me to the HRSMS, so here I am today, hooked again.