Jan Mark Winston of Westport passed away on July 5, 2026 in his home, after a long and courageous battle with multiple myeloma and having just celebrated his 90th birthday and 64th wedding anniversary.
Jan was born June 21,1936 as Johan Weinstein in South Orange, New Jersey. His parents were immigrants from Russia and Romania, and he grew up with one older brother, Donald. In the late 1940s, he met a group of friends at the local Jewish Community Center who would become his “butchkies”, his life-long best friends of 77 years. He graduated from Columbia High School in South Orange, New Jersey and then Princeton University, where he worked at the campus radio station and earned a Political Science degree.
Jan spent his career at IBM, where he had a highly successful 35-year run in Boca Raton, Florida, Atlanta, Georgia, and Somers, New York. In the early 1980s, he helped lead the planning and development of the first personal computer, the IBM PC. His last role at IBM, in the mid-1990s, was leading the then-cutting-edge speech and pen technology business.
Jan spent his retirement years embracing exercise and managing his health, working out with a trainer for 30+ years, and planning diligently for his family’s future. He also returned to an executive role, serving as the Chairman of the Board for Inrad, an optics technology company, and for more than two decades as the President of the Board of Directors at Lansdowne, the condominium community where he lived for more than 40 years. He stepped down from both positions just 2 years ago.
But by far Jan’s greatest and most cherished role was as a friend, husband, father and grandfather. He and Gail met as working twenty-somethings in New York City when set up by a friend. He was actively engaged in his kids’ lives and then his grandchildren’s, teaching most of them to play tennis and offering much life and career advice to all. Even through very busy and travel-filled years, he always showed up; as everything from a T-ball coach, to driving instructor, to life advisor.
Jan Winston is survived by his life and parenting equal partner, Gail; his three children Karen Winston (Bruce Nohe), Lauren MacNeill (Neil), and Andrew Winston (Christine); his five grandchildren Daniel Norman (Maddie Anthony), Julia Norman (Kyle Solomon), Joshua Winston, Jacob Winston, and Benjamin MacNeill; four of his five childhood friends Walter, Lenny, Howard, and Marty; and his nieces Robin and Alyse Winston. He was predeceased by his brother Donald and his niece Mona Winston.
We will all miss his wonderful generosity, love, and fantastic advice about life.
His funeral services will be held on Tuesday July 7th at 11 a.m. at Abraham L. Green and Son Funeral Home, 88 Beach Road, Fairfield, CT, with interment following at Willowbrook Cemetery in Westport.
In lieu of flowers, the family kindly requests that memorial donations be made to the Multiple Myeloma Research Foundation (MMRF)
Recent Comments