JohnD Winters Centennial Park approved

It may be easily misspelled, but it never will be confused with some other JohnD Winters Centennial Park in some other city.

The Carson City Parks and Recreation Commission approved a request Tuesday evening to rename Centennial Park in honor of the fourth-generation Nevada rancher who, throughout his life, has served on several community organizations and twice donated generous plots of land for public use. The decision was forwarded to Carson City supervisors for the final word.

In 1956, Winters donated land for the former Carson City High School on King Street, and in 1984, he gave nearly 100 acres for the West Eagle Valley Golf Course next door to Centennial Park, which was christened in 1976.

"He is a gentleman and a Nevadan," Mayor Marv Teixeira said at the parks and rec meeting. "If you know JohnD, he is the consummate gentleman. No chest beating. He gets it done by doing it quietly."

The Winters name goes back in Northern Nevada. JohnD's great-grandfather immigrated here on the Oregon Trail and settled in the Washoe Valley in 1852. His grandfather, John D. Winters, on Sept. 3, 1862, lost the race for delegate to Congress to Gordon Newell Mott by a vote of 2,838 to 1,682, according to state archivist Guy Rocha. Winters did not run for the congressional delegate seat in the election which John Cradlebaugh won on Sept. 7, 1864, over A.C. Bradford and Thomas Fitch, shortly before Nevada was granted statehood.

In addition, John D. Winters ran against Gov. Henry Goode Blasdel in the second gubernatorial election in 1866, losing by a vote of 5,125 to 4,105.

Commissioner John Felesina, who made the motion to approve the name change, said he wished that he had thought of changing the name of the park to honor Winters.

The idea of putting the name on something in Carson City came in a letter from Winters' stepson Bruce Pozzi, a public relations consultant in Anchorage, Alaska, who realized on a drive through town that among the signs like Graves Lane and Lompa Lane, there was no mention of Winters.

Teixeira said he would like to erect a large sign in front of the park with Winters' name on it.

"As long as his name is big and 'Centennial Park' is small."