IMGA Golfer of the Month

Bruce McCorkle

The Nazis invaded Poland, The Wizard of OZ premiered in Hollywood, gas cost 10 cents per gallon, and Richard (Dick) Winkelman was born in his parents’ bedroom in Belleville, IL. Dick is the IMGA Golfer of the Month for March.

Born into a working-class family with his dad working in a munitions plant in St Louis and his mother cleaning houses and working as a meat wrapper in a local supermarket, Dick appears to have inherited a work ethic that enabled him to not only provide for himself and his family, but also to earn a Ph.D. in Economics and become a tenured Professor of Economics at ASU.

The early years included walking to school, running a paper route, and working at the local Nehi bottling plant and doing everything from making syrup, putting bottles into the bottle washer, and packing the finished product into shells.

Demonstrating an initiative that would serve him well, he arrived to work early and taught himself how to drive by driving the route trucks out of the garage and into the parking lot. In those days, you turned the key on, held in the clutch with your left foot, and flared your right foot in order to step on the accelerator and starter at the same time. Yes… Dick can drive stick.

His truck-driving and people skills served him well post-high school as a route salesman selling soda to markets and taverns in small towns around Belleville. He continued his education, taking night classes, graduating from Belleville Junior College and Southern Illinois University in Edwardsville, and completing graduate work at the University of Illinois.

Marrying Lynn (a young lady he knew in high school) gave him a helpmate to accompany him through his academic and professional career. Encouraged and inspired by teachers Karl Sauber, Robert Erickson, and Leona Kriege, he earned his Ph.D. in Economics and taught every level, including graduate and MBA classes, and served as a visiting professor in Oslo, Norway.

He counts his 58-year marriage to Lynn, rearing two mature adults, and his academic career among his major accomplishments.

Dick says that there are two economic principles that every person should know:

1. Opportunity Costs (the benefits an individual, investor, or business misses out on when choosing one alternative over another)

2. “TINSTAFL” (there is no such thing as a free lunch)

Advice to others: Be yourself but, above all, be kind to and considerate of others (this supersedes “be yourself”).

Lessons Learned: Hard work and perseverance pay off, and there is never any job so menial that you would be embarrassed doing it. Work is noble!

During the past 18 years in Sun Lakes, Dick has served as Treasurer and Tournament Chair for MOGA and is currently the Handicap Chair for IMGA.

Thank you, Dick, for helping us navigate successfully through the new World Handicap System with your quiet dignity and for all you do for IMGA!

(Early) congratulations to you and Lynn on your 59th Wedding Anniversary in June!