Nicholas W. Winter

Nicholas W. Winter died Oct. 25. He was 80.

Winter was born March 7, 1943, in Birmingham, Alabama, the son of Roland and Mary (Hagen) Winter. He graduated from Rockford East High School in 1961. He attended Northern Illinois University (NIU) on an athletic scholarship. He graduated from NIU in 1965 with a bachelor of science in chemistry. He earned his doctor of philosophy in chemical physics from California Institute of Technology in 1969. After postdoc positions at Battelle and NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, he moved to the San Francisco Bay Area where he worked for 32 years as a computational physicist at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. He taught many classes as an adjunct professor of chemistry at California State University, Hayward and University of California, Berkeley. He served as head coach of both the track and field and cross-country teams at Livermore High School and at Mission San Jose High School during the 1980s.

Survived by his wife, Barbara; his sons, Andrew (Sheila) Winter of Chapel Hill, North Carolina and Nick (Allie) Winter of Forest Park; his granddaughter Alexa Winter; his sisters Nancy (Tom) Edwards and Janet Winter; many nieces and nephews. Predeceased by his parents; his sister, Mary Elizabeth "Beth" Winter and his brother, Daniel Winter.

Memorial donations can be made to Wesley Willows. https://www.wesleywillows.org/memorial-gifts.  Private graveside services will be held later. Share online condolences at www.fitzgeraldfh.com. To plant trees in memory, please visit the Sympathy Store.