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political marginalization, exhaustion, drinking, discour-
agement over the prospects for peace in a Cold War world.
Even Winant’s biographer, Bernard Bellush, seems be-
fuddled by Winant’s tragic end.
He Walked Alone
, published
in the Netherlands in 1968, presents a confusing and
ambivalent portrait.
“It was such a shocking end for this good man,” says
historian Lynne Olson, author of
Citizens of London
. “Many
people, including a lot of people at St. Paul’s, simply didn’t
know how to cope with it.”
Today suicide is generally judged with more with com-
passion than censure, and Winant’s legacy has emerged
from the shadows. In June 2009, Winant Park opened on
85 acres of Concord conservation land – less than 100
yards from the entrance to St. Paul’s School. Originally
part of Winant’s Pleasant Street home, the land was
donated by his younger son, Rivington, in memory of his
parents. There, hikers and bikers can learn about Winant
from an informational kiosk. St. Paul’s provided a parking
lot and park access on School property.
In February 2010, Lynne Olson’s book broke the story
nationally of the American ambassador to World War II
Britain and his key role in forging history’s greatest war-
time alliance. The media reacted with curiosity and aston-
ishment. NPR host Robert Siegel told Olson before their
interview that he had asked various prominent people,
including David Brooks of
The New York Times
and E.J.
Dionne of
The Washington Post
, if they had ever heard of
Winant. None of them had. “He thought that was unbeliev-
able,” Olson recalls, “as did I.”
Olson’s book became a huge word-of-mouth success.
“People have repeatedly told me how much they loved
my portrayal of Winant and how much they wish that
public figures now were more like him,” she said. “He has
truly been an inspiration for a lot of people, including me.”
In this spirit, five-term Democratic New Hampshire
state representative Steve Shurtleff introduced legisla-
tion in 2013 to ensure that Winant’s accomplishments
and character never again would be forgotten. “I looked
at what was happening in Washington and even Concord,
the breakdown in bipartisanship,” Rep. Shurtleff explains.
“How appropriate to have some permanent memorial and
reminder of how much can be accomplished if people
put aside petty politics and focus on the public good.”
Shurtleff recalls childhood stories of Governor Winant’s
kindness during the desperate years of the Great De-
pression, and such stories still abound. Winant would
hand 50-cent pieces to homeless men who approached
him en route to the State House. He instructed Concord
police to let the men sleep in unused jail cells, feed them
a good breakfast, and send Winant the bill. One snowy,
wet day he arrived at his office without an overcoat. When
questioned, he explained, “I met a man who needed it
more than I did.”
“Winant was the most beloved [politician] of the century,”
says Milne, also a member of the Winant Memorial Com-
mittee. “He represents a bipartisan style of politics in
which personal interaction and personal persuasion are
important, not the ability to raise money and hire consult-
ants to put on flashy advertisements. We’re sending the
message that the Winants of the world retain values that
are important in public life.”
In July 2014, thanks in part to a gift of $50,000 from
the current U.S. Ambassador to Great Britain, Matthew
Barzun ’88, the committee hired Missouri-based sculptor
J. Brett Grill to create a bronze figure of Winant for in-
stallation in front of the State Library, just beside the
gold-domed New Hampshire State House and in view of
the Governor’s second-floor office. The statue is expected
to cost $94,000, and the committee hopes to raise about
$60,000 more for continuing maintenance and to create
scholarships to the Advanced Studies Program, which
brings rising seniors from New Hampshire public high
schools for summer study at St. Paul’s.
The current heads of the John Winant Society, a student
nonpartisan political club founded in the early 1960s by
Secretary of State John Kerry ’62, are involved in fund-
raising and have created a Facebook page for their effort.
Rector Mike Hirshfeld, an honorary co-chair of the
Winant Committee, has donated $10,000 to the project
on behalf of the School and has agreed to match funds
raised by the Winant Society.
The committee envisions a memorial statue that will
emulate Winant – accessible by a bench on which visitors
can sit beside him. “He doesn’t belong on a pedestal. He
never put himself on one,” says Van McLeod, commis-
sioner of the N.H. Department of Cultural Resources.
The committee expects to unveil the completed memo-
rial in fall 2015.
In September, Representative Shurtleff learned a new
story about Winant’s generosity. At a New Hampshire
Historical Society reception, conversation turned to the
cost of the meeting space, which the Memorial Commit-
tee had rented for the evening. Rep. Shurtleff had paid,
but Bill Dunlap, the executive director of the Historical
Society, told him that the rental check would be returned.
There would be no fee.
One morning during the Great Depression, Dunlap ex-
plained, his grandfather was walking down Main Street
and happened to meet Governor Winant, whom he knew
slightly. The governor asked him how he was doing and
Mr. Dunlap said, “Not too good, Governor, I lost my job
this morning.” Winant told him to be at the governor’s
office that afternoon and he’d have a state job for him,
and so he did. Bill Dunlap told Shurtleff that when he
learned the reception had been planned by the Winant
Memorial Committee, he couldn’t charge, considering
what Winant had done for his family.
