David Wineland

David Alan Wineland died peacefully on May 30 at the Lutheran Hospice in Wheat Ridge, Colorado.  David had made his home in Costa Rica since his retirement in 2012, but came to stay with his sister in Colorado when he was diagnosed with lung cancer last September, because he had better treatment options in the U.S.

David was born April 12, 1950, in Washington, DC, the son of Fred L. Wineland (who later served as Maryland's Secretary of State) and Mary K. (Flack) Wineland.  David's family moved to Fort Washington, Maryland, when he was 7 years old.  For high school, Dave attended Randolph Macon Academy in Front Royal, Virginia, from which he graduated in 1968.  He then attended the University of Denver in Colorado and graduated with a BA in Geography in 1972.

David had many different occupations in his long and varied career, starting with a summer job in 1967, when he worked as a deck hand on the Maryland State Yacht, the Maryland Lady, during the time when Governor Spiro Agnew and his family were living on the yacht because the Governor's mansion was being renovated.  Dave got to be well acquainted with the whole Agnew family.

After college, he undertook a 26-year career in parks and recreation.  From 1973 to '75, he worked for the National Park Service as a Park Ranger, first at Crater Lake National Park in Oregon and later at Rocky Mountain National Park in Colorado.  In 1976, he became a project director for the Maryland Department of Natural Resources, working mostly in Garrett and Allegany Counties.  From 1982 to 1992, David served as Director of Parks and Recreation for Dorchester County, Maryland, and he did similar work as assistant parks superintendent for Germantown, Tennessee, from 1993 to 1998.

David then took a completely different tack or, more precisely, shifted gears, and launched a second career as an over-the-road trucker, driving first for Decker Truck Lines and subsequently for Parker Farms of Clinton, Maryland, delivering fresh produce up and down the East Coast.

After 5 years, the stresses of truck driving were starting to wear on him, and he also felt the need to provide more help for his ailing father.  Thus began his third career.  Dave enrolled in nursing school in 2003 and became a Certified Nursing Assistant.  Soon he was working at a local nursing home and using his newly learned skills to care for his father in his off hours.  In 2008, he began working in the cardiac care center at Doctors Community Hospital in Lanham, Maryland.  He also took additional training to become a certified phlebotomist and spent the last couple years of his third career drawing blood samples.

Dave had married Lois McKenzie in Cumberland, MD, in 1980, and that marriage ended in divorce about 15 years later.  He is survived by his son Jesse Wineland, Cambridge, MD; his daughter Haily Wineland of Chicago; his sister Gail Martin, Lakewood, CO; his brothers William Wineland, McHenry, MD, and Kirk Wineland, Richmond, VA; three nieces; and three nephews.