Winter was born in Ellery, Illinois, on December 12, 1908. His family moved to Larned in western Kansas when he was three years old. The family ranch was located along the Santa Fe Trail.
He attended the Grand Rapids Junior College in Michigan, Cleveland School of Art, the National Academy of Design in New York City, the Grand Central School of Art and the Beaux-Arts Institute of Design, New York. He settled in Santa Fe, New Mexico, in 1939 and served as an artist with the U.S. Signal Corps in the Air Force in World War II. He died on April 5, 1982, in New Rochelle, New York.
Works
HSBC Bank, Fishermen
State Capitol second floor rotunda, Kansas
General Assembly at the United Nations, Titans
Air Force Academy Doolittle Hall, in Colorado Springs
National Wildlife Federation, Washington, D.C.
AFL–CIO headquarters in the Capitol, two murals Labor is Life, south and Labor Omnia Vincit, north
Church of St. Paul the Apostle, The Angel of the Resurrection
Lincoln Center, New York City* at the Sheraton Hotel Lobby, New York City,
Kansas Museum of History, Great White Buffalo
National Bank in Washington, D.C. and,
HSBC Bank, at Avenue U and East 17th Street, Brooklyn, New York
List of murals and sculptures
Mural, Threshing in Kansas, Hutchinson, Kansas, post office completed in 1942
Tomb of Fr. Isaac Hecker with Angel of the Resurrection, Church of Saint Paul the Apostle, New York City (1959)
Fishermen Mural, HSBC Bank, Brooklyn, New York
Ascent, Daytop Village
National Wildlife Federation, Headquarters Building, Washington, D.C., dedicated by President John F. Kennedy
Labor is Life, AFL-CIO Headquarters Building, Washington, D.C., dedicated by President Dwight D. Eisenhower
Texas Abstract Mosaic, Lobby, Sheraton Southland Center, Dallas, Texas
Six Wood Carvings, Vaqueros and Alamo Rooms, Southland Center, Dallas, Texas
Stampede, Town Room, Southland Center, Dallas, Texas
The Conversion of St. Paul, Facade, Church of St. Paul the Apostle, Lincoln Center, New York City
Rhapsody in Gold, Park Sheraton Hotel, New York City
Our Lady of the Skies, U.S. Air Force Academy Chapel, Colorado Springs, Colorado
Mosaic, Protestant area of the Air Force Academy Chapel
National Bank of Washington, Georgetown, Washington, D.C.
Union Central Life Insurance Company, Cincinnati, Ohio
St. Francis with the Birds and Animals of Missouri, St. Francis Hospital, Marceline, Missouri
Astor Home for Children, Rhinebeck, New York
Cathedral College, Hillside, Long Island, New York
Chapel, Hawthorne, New York
P.S. #84, Brooklyn, New York
Hotel St. Regis-Sheration, New York, New York
Steeds of Apollo, a medallion of the Apollo 13 mission insignia, struck by Franklin Mint