Clifford L. Winget papers

Clifford L. Winget was born on July 28, 1922, in Lyndhurst, NJ, and graduated from Lyndhurst High School in 1940. He worked as a machinist at Dumont Labs from 1940 to 1942 before serving in the US Air Force as a test pilot and engineering staff advisor until 1945. He returned to Dumont Labs in January 1946 as supervisor of the research and development shop, leaving in April 1947 to work as a self-employed mechanical engineer until 1951. During his military service, he took engineering and mechanical courses at the US Air Force Institute of Technology, returning to the Air Force as an electronics instructor and engineering officer from 1951 to 1954.

Winget left the Air Force in 1954 to work as a field service engineer and project test engineer for Walter Kidde and Co. in Belleville, NJ. He left the firm briefly in 1959 to work in standards engineering and quality control at the Kearfott Division of General Precision in Little Falls, NJ, returning to Walter Kidde and Co. in contracts engineering in 1960. He was promoted to project engineer in 1961 and to manager of prototype production in 1964.

Winget joined the WHOI staff in December 1966 as a research associate in the Applied Oceanography Department working with Bill Rainnie Jr. on the design of electromechanical systems for the submersible Alvin and other instrumentation. After Alvin sank in 1968, Winget spearheaded the movement to rebuild the submarine for $750,000.

During his career he designed many sampling instruments for a range of scientific studies, including SeaDuct, a deep sea in situ flume intended to gather data and samples from seafloor sediments and the water just above them for the High-Energy Benthic Boundary Layer Experiment (HEBBLE) led by Charley Hollister. Because of its large size and weight, SeaDuct could only be launched from the Knorr, and the doors of the Coastal Research Laboratory had to be removed to get it out when it was completed. Winget, known as an innovative and resourceful engineer, managed the construction. Spin-offs from SeaDuct led to advances in flume studies of fluid-flow dynamics. Winget was promoted to research specialist in 1970 and retired from the Institution in 1987. He continued to contribute his expertise after his retirement, returning to WHOI on a casual basis to work with Sandy Williams in the Applied Ocean Physics and Engineering Department until 1995.

He loved animals and usually had a dog with him. He volunteered for many years at the Sandwich Food Pantry and was a member of the Experimental Aircraft Association.

[Taken from Winget's WHOI obituary, edited by Katy Sternberger]