Story of a man with multiple careers

Rick Winterson, Senior Editor of South Boston Online

Story of a Man with Multiple Careers

BOSTON- “Who are you Rick Winterson?” The 73-year-old man does not smile, he laughs; out loud.

Winterson would not know what LOL means because he refuses to create a facebook account at the expense of being “hit in the face” to join the network. He does not own a cell phone, a T.V. or a computer but he owns books, a lot, and describes himself as an avid reader.

The former 1960s folk guitar player graduated from MIT University in chemical engineering before entering his service, “it was an obligation at the time,” he says swallowing one by one the handful of almonds he put on a paper towel on a table of his office. He was sent to the Bikini Atoll in the Pacific to test “the so-called weapon of mass destruction,” he says, the Atomic weapon Test, “a weapon that cannot be used in the world, that is just genocide,” he adds.

After spending 40 years all around the world and five years in Europe between 1978 and 1983, Winterson went back to the U.S. “I was not happy,” he says behind his Boston Celtics hat sipping from his Boston Globe mug. So he worked as a consultant in the engineering industry, “it was a novelty,” he explains and because he had the skills, “it was ok,” he concludes.

“I had a beach head,” he says using the military metaphor to mention the opportunity he had working in the German Engineering Plastics Imports named ROHM. Winterson imported the coding of the pills most Americans were swallowing on a daily basis, as well as fake women fingernails, he only imported in salons because of sanitary purposes and plastic tops that were “highly specialized,” he says.

Married with four kids, Winterson describes himself as being for many years a family man. His current co-workers describe him as perfectionist, witty and fun, “he knows something about everything,” says Barbara Caputo, contributor editor at South Boston Online (SBOL).

Fifteen years ago, he went through personal difficulties and decided to change his life.

To change their life, women often start by changing their hair-style from a brunette to a platine-blond, Winterson decided to change careers. He opened a health store in Boston that sold Traditional Chinese Medicine or TCM, Indian medicines, plants and herbal based drugs but in the back of his head, his ambition was to be an actor, “which I did,” he says. In the meantime Winterson started in the “Stage Source” company a decade ago.

“We see him all the time,” says Caputo glancing at the screen of her computer, “he is everywhere.” “And is always politically correct,” adds her colleague at the newspaper Jeanne Rooney who yelled at Winterson with irony that he was going to get docked for being late on that day.

Yes, Rick Winterson is a lucky man, he only works with women in his office, “sometimes he fakes he is deaf,” says Roseanne McKeanna contributor at the SBOL.  “Often, we litteraly torture him,” adds her colleague Caputo with a devil smile. Then she sighs, “but we would be lost without him.”

He took courses of voice training admitting that in this business, “you prepare yourself all these years to be unemployed.” But “I had an advantage,” he says in comparison to the young and beautiful actors, “I was already old and ugly.”

Winterson left the herbal store and read in a new publication a job offer as a proofreader. “I have good eyes for errors,” says the engineer.

This is why he circled all of the errors of an article of the publication, went to the office, handed the article full of red marks and said, “Could I have the job?”

In 2000, Rick Winterson started as a proofreader at the South Boston Online newspaper and worked his way up to be now called the Senior Editor. “He is meticulous and very intelligent,” shouts Jeanne Rooney, the publisher and editor of SBOL from the back of the office.

“I never had done journalistic writing before,” explains Winterson, when the editor of the newspaper sent him to cover a Business Article in replacement of one of the reporters who called and said he was sick. But the company he wrote the article on liked the article very much, which allowed Winterson to fully start his third career, in “boasting a good percentage of the writing,” he says.

« I think he’s most effective when he’s doing a human interest story, » says Jackie Rooney, owner of Rooney Real Estate Inc. neighbor of SBOL.

After traveling around the world, Winterson went back to the place he was born, Boston, and got involved not only at the SBOL offices on East Broadway, but also with the South Boston community, the 6 feet tall man uses his energy to help kids on acting work as well as keeping them out of trouble, he explains with a smile.

The Senior Editor kept acting in Independent movies, plays or TV news broadcast, “you get what you can,” he says and joined the Screen Actor Guild of America.

The man with three careers keeps himself busy. He is going to visit his family in England in June because even though he loves acting, reading and writing, Winterson says he loves traveling.

The last British mountain he climbed was 3500 feet high, maybe this time he will try to double the altitude height.