[Congressional Record Volume 155, Number 159 (Thursday, October 29, 2009)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E2659]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                       A TRIBUTE TO ELMER WINTER

                                 ______
                                 

                            HON. GWEN MOORE

                              of wisconsin

                    in the house of representatives

                       Thursday, October 29, 2009

  Ms. MOORE of Wisconsin. Madam Speaker, I rise in honor of Elmer 
Winter, a noted Milwaukee philanthropist, entrepreneur, artist, and 
author. In 1948, Mr. Winter cofounded Manpower, Inc., based in 
Milwaukee, WI and today the largest temporary employer in the world.
  Elmer Winter was born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, on March 6, 1912. His 
father was a clothing merchant and belonged to a small, liberal Jewish 
community in Milwaukee in the 1920s. He was educated in Milwaukee 
Public Schools, graduated from the University of Wisconsin with a 
degree in economics as well as a law degree. He practiced law in 
partnership with his brother-in-law, Aaron Scheinfeld.
  Manpower began with the illness of their secretary: Winter and 
Scheinfeld were frantic to find a typist in order to finish a legal 
brief for the state Supreme Court. The deadline was met only because a 
former secretary worked until dawn. The partners knew that other 
businesses must face these types of challenges and launched the 
temporary help agency with an investment of $7000. Manpower is now a 
multibillion-dollar company with 30,000 employees in 4,100 offices 
throughout 82 countries.
  Mr. Winter had many community-building interests such as improving 
the central city of Milwaukee, including its schools. ``I am very much 
concerned about the movement of corporate executives away from public 
schools to charter and voucher schools,'' he said in 2000. 
``Corporations have forgotten about the fact that we have 100,000 young 
people in the public school system that need help''. Mr. Winter 
considered jobs as the bedrock for any social reform because a job 
meant a better place to live, streets that are safe, and kids who are 
out of mischief. In his spare time, he created art and wrote 13 
published books. As a painter and sculptor his work was displayed 
throughout the United States and Israel.
  His efforts included everything from the Youthpower Jobs Program to 
getting business-donated computers refurbished at the state women's 
prison at Taycheedah for MPS classrooms. Mr. Winter founded the 
Milwaukee Center for Independence, which serves people with 
disabilities and is one of Milwaukee's largest nonprofit agencies. He 
served as a national president of the American Jewish Committee and 
worked on behalf of the Jewish community on both the national and 
international level. Mr. Winter formed and led the Committee for the 
Economic Growth of Israel, a nonprofit dedicated to expanding trade 
relationships between Israel and the United States.
  Mr. Winter was married to Nannette Rosenberg for 54 years and 
together they raised three daughters, eight grandchildren and six 
great-grandchildren. Nannette passed away in 1990. In 1992 he married 
Hope Melamed. Mr. Winter retired as president of Manpower in 1976. He 
drove daily to the office he maintained at Manpower's headquarters in 
Milwaukee until shortly before his death on October 22, 2009, at the 
age of 97. Madam Speaker, Milwaukee has experienced a profound loss of 
a valued native son with the passing of Mr. Winter. Today, I thank him 
and his family for their immeasurable achievements. I mourn his loss 
and salute his legacy to our community and the world.

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