Winston Holmes Churchill

Winston Holmes Churchill died on April 5 of a brain bleed just before his 95th birthday. He was practicing his fly casting skills for an upcoming fishing trip to Texas. He died peacefully, surrounded by the people he loved, in the same bedroom where he was born.
He was born April, 16, 1930, to Frederick H. and Thelma Rimbey Churchill. He attended Powell schools, and as a youngster he said shooting marbles on the playground was “more important than the stuff going on inside the school building.” He graduated with the Class of 1949 and claimed the 49ers were the best of the best. In later years, he enjoyed hosting his classmates during Alumni Weekend.
Soon after graduation, he joined the Navy and served on board the USS Henrico during the Korean War.
In 1957, he married Beryl Gail in Cody, and for the next 68 years they were a team, almost 24/7. They worked hard, loved, laughed, carried each other through some rough spots, and fly fished in more than 10 different countries and several places in the U.S., but always came home to enjoy the fishing for brookies and breathing in the beauty of the Beartooths, Bighorns and the Clark's Fork country. Winston tied most of the flies for the couple's fishing trips, and he was a perfectionist. Often Beryl would hear sailor language roaring up from the basement when a tie didn't go according to plan.
After his father died, Winston farmed the home place west of town. Farming was his calling. Often, when his sons were small, he'd load the three little boys and their dog in the back of the pickup to irrigate with him. The neighbors always knew when they saw three Churchill boys walking home; a frustrated Winston had enough “help" for the day. He was proud of his sons who took the farm to the next level after his official retirement in 1995. He may have officially retired, but he and Beryl were still irrigating until he was almost 90, and he operated the combine at harvest and brought in the last load of the season when he was 94 years old.
He was a modest, quiet man, who didn't like to talk about his accomplishments, but preferred to list the achievements of his family.
He had a lifelong interest in paleontology, and since the 1920's the farm has been "home base" for paleontologists from all over the world who do summer field work in the Bighorn Basin. In 1997, the family received the 8th Morris Skinner Award for outstanding and sustained contributions to the field of Vertebrate Paleontology. For more than 60 years, paleontologists were welcomed to a 4th of July picnic in the Churchill backyard.
He was a member of the Union Presbyterian Church and charter member of Powell Elks Lodge. He served on the Shoshone Irrigation District, Crown Hill Cemetery District and Homesteader Museum boards and was an active participant in Wyoming Water Association and Upper Missouri Water Association, where he received the Water Master Award.
He was preceded in death by his parents and sister, Joyce Shelby. He is survived by his wife Beryl and sons and daughters-in-law Tom, Todd and Rhonda, and Coy and Deb; several nieces, cousins and their families.
He had a wonderful life full of hard, satisfying work, laughter and love.
Memorials may be given to Homesteader Museum, Northwest College Foundation, Stillwater Hospice, Wyoming Disabled Hunters or a charity of choice.
A celebration of life will be held later when the sun is shining and there's a hatch on somewhere.
Thompson Funeral Home is in charge of arrangements.