"You’re the man of the house now, Pat."
After learning that Pat Winton's father had dropped dead, a neighbor outlined the course of the seven–year–old's future. From that moment in 1946 onwards, heavy burdens fell on his skinny shoulders as the boy tried valiantly to help support his mother and younger sister on a rural Finnish homestead in Michigan's Upper Peninsula.
His trials and hardships form a spellbinding story, as the boy, and then the adolescent and young man, struggled for survival. But, thanks to hard work, perseverance, and a firm belief in mankind's better nature, in time, he thrived.
After earning scholarships and then a degree from the General Motors Institute, his early career focused on the auto industry and raising a family. He earned a master's degree in mechanical engineering and in time became co–owner of an international company producing automated machines for producing small electric motors. During those years, he wrote and published technical papers and patents.
And then he made sure his life took an entirely different tack. Pat transformed a boating hobby into a retirement challenge. After earning his USCG Captain's license, he and his wife Elaine led boating getaways and moved new yachts on adventures throughout the Great Lakes, the Mississippi River, the Pacific, and the Atlantic Eastern Seaboard.
When Elaine's health began failing, Pat answered yet another challenge at the age of 82: creative writing. Now the author of a riveting coming–of–age memoir, Farmed Out in Ontonagon County, Pat is at work on several new writing projects.
