Obituaries

Robert John Winnemore

Robert John Winnemore, 71, a Queens-born lawyer, died Oct. 29.

He attended Ascension School, Elmhurst; Cathedral Prep, Brooklyn; and Fordham University, the Bronx. He graduated from New York Law School and worked as an assistant district attorney, assigned for a while to the narcotics squad. He eventually went into private practice handling cases for insurance firms and other commercial clients.

He devoted a great deal of his time volunteering as a lawyer in the right-to-life movement. Toward the end of his life, he provided legal services to non-paying clients needing help in housing owner and tenant eviction cases.

A talented musician, he played the piano, trumpet, banjo, guitar and saxophone. He started a high school singing group, a folk group, and in his college years, performed at the Bitter End in Greenwich Village with a group from Fordham.

His real love was classic sailing ships, more specifically, schooners. He helped organize the South Street Seaport volunteers to revive interest in the Schooner Race for the Mayor’s Cup in the 1970s. A member of the U.S. Coast Guard Auxiliary, he also belonged to TASCA, the group that teaches sailing to students at the Flushing Meadow Park.

He was an active member of the Cathedral Prep Alumni Association.

A Mass of Christian Burial was celebrated at St. Francis of Assisi Church. Burial was in Calvary Cemetery, Woodside.