JW




James Winner, Jr.
Chairman of Winner International

James Earl Winner, Jr.
Born : 1930, Mercer County, PA
Father: James Burton Winner
Mother: Gladys Bacon

Owner and part time resident at Tara Mansion


JIM WINNER grew up dirt poor on a farm in Pymatuning Township. Today, he's the second-largest property owner in downtown Sharon and is known locally and internationally for his ventures that include The Club, hotels, restaurants, a clothing store and a charter aircraft company. In the works: The Vocal Group Hall of Fame, a culinary school and a spa.




James E. Winner Jr. knows what it's like to go without and to work hard for what you've got.

``I was raised on a very small, very poor dirt farm in Transfer, PA," he said. ``When I'm speaking to a group, I feel comfortable saying that no one in the room was raised poorer than me.''

At the age of 5, he was up at 5 a.m. to milk the cows on the Pymatuning Township farm. He attended a one-room schoolhouse and graduated in a class of eight from Reynolds at age 16.

At 17, he entered the Army and six months later found himself across the ocean in the middle of the Korean War.

But the 67-year-old chairman of Winner International attributes his successes to what he learned long ago on the farm.

``My father gave me my work ethic,'' he said as his eyes drifted off and his tone and expression became sentimental. ``Nothing has ever been physically hard for me, I've done harder work on the farm.'' But more importantly, Winner said, his mother was the true influence on his morals and integrity. At 13, after watching his parents work so hard for nothing, Winner decided that farming was not for him. His mother told him to tell his father about the decision. ``I was shaking,'' Winner said.


``It was assumed that I was to take over, but I went out to the barn and told my father as soon as I was old enough I was going to do something else.'' After a moment of silence from his father, Winner was told that if he wanted to give up farming, that was his decision. ``She was teaching me a lesson: Be forthright with your plans because when you are not, that causes problems,'' he said. ``I think she would be very proud of me now.'' The man who now runs a multimillion-dollar company attended a couple years of business school but never went to college _ something he feels put him behind a few steps along the way.

``The things I learned through trial and error you learn in college,'' he said.



James E. Winner Jr. measures his success not in how much money he makes annually, but on how much money he gives away. Jim practices tithing, where 10 percent of the company's profits are turned over to charity.

Ten percent of the profits from Winner International are funneled into the Winner Foundation with the primary goal of helping kids continue their education.

Winner said his views on the importance of tithing and his value system have changed over the years. He looks at life from the beginning to the end and he sees the direction he would like his life to be going at age 67.

``I'm a lot closer to the end than I am the beginning,'' he said. With each passing day, the Winner name becomes more and more synonymous with projects in Mercer County. Winner knows some people call it an ego trip, but he refers to it as keeping his family accountable for the area's future.

``I know that I'm putting the responsibility on my kids and grandchildren,'' he said. ``Every time my name goes up on something I, and they, have the responsibility to live up to that name. I'm passionate about what I do.''

All of the profits from The Winner, the off-price fashion store on West State Street, also go to charity, while each Winner family member donates 10 percent of his paycheck to Covenant Presbyterian Church, Sharon. ``I've provided for the education of my grandchildren for as far as I can see,'' he said. ``I firmly believe in providing for a debt-free education, but beyond that I don't want them to scratch and scrape but I want them to be builders.''






``I have joys in life and it's not buying cars and having things.
But it's the things I do with people and for people that really means something.''
James E. Winner Jr.
with wife, Donna







The CLUB