POTOMAC, Md. – Richard Winkel, 97, formerly of Wakefield Street, Lewiston, died Oct. 23, at Manor Care. He formerly operated a big laundry and dry cleaning business in Lewiston-Auburn and was a prize-winning racer of small sailboats.

He grew up on the North Sea Coast in Husum, Germany, and attended a University in Switzerland, training as a chemist. He came to the USA in 1928, at the age of 21. Landing first in New York City, he came to Lewiston and answered a newspaper ad for a job at New Method Cleaners on Lisbon Street.

In 1932, he established Modern Cleaners at Norris-Hayden Laundry and ran it for many years in a building, now gone, on Mechanics Row in Auburn, behind Auburn Hall. Later, a storefront location was added on Main Street in Lewiston near St. Joseph’s Church, and he merged with Judkins Laundry located behind the old Dewitt Hotel in Lewiston.

The operation was a big one and “Dick” was a familiar figure in Lewiston-Auburn. They handled the cleaning business for most of the children’s summer camps in the lakes region and the busy mills often sent fabric to be washed repeatedly at the laundry, testing for durability.

He and his wife, the former Dorothy Julia, were founding members of the Taylor Pond Yacht Club in 1941. Along with a number of Lewiston-Auburn friends, he built 19-foot Lightning-class sailboats in the 1940’s and 1950’s and raced them in many regattas. His racing skills were in great demand; the Prout’s Neck Yacht Club recruited him to race Lightnings for them.

In retirement he was a realtor and did many home appraisals for several area banks. His wife of 56 years, passed away in 1994; in 1996 he moved to Maryland to live with his daughter, Julie and her husband, Bill Lawlor. They accompanied him to Germany in 1997, for a family reunion organized in his honor in Frankfurt, Bonn, and Cologne.

Survivors include two daughters, Christine Chavonelle, of Waterville, and Julianne Lawlor and husband, Bill, of Potomac, Md.; a sister, Hedwig Neumann, of Frankfurt, Germany; her daughters, Frauke, Inge, and son, Detlef, and an extended family in Germany, Denmark, and Toronto; grandchildren, Holly (Chavonelle) Haskett and her husband, Scott, and daughters, Olivia and Meredith, of Westfield, Ind., Peter Chavonelle and his wife, Kristin, daughter, Sophia, and son, Baxter, of Windham, and Thomas and Asha Lawlor, of Potomac, Md.