CHAPTER 1
Using Science
Three Generations of Winston Men
Born in 1937, Marcus Winston was a late depression baby. Contrary to the mass of the unfortunate, he fell right into the lap of luxury. His father Joseph was a banker and real estate investor who made out like a bandit in those hard times. Joseph made his fortune in New York City, the center of the financial universe, but when President Roosevelt executed a large-scale shift of power to government, he moved his family to Washington where the action was. With land and property prices low, he obtained a multi-acre estate in Georgetown for a pittance and, after gutting the existing structure while retaining its frame of Republican Architecture, he built a gloriously lavish mansion that virtually exuded taste and wealth. This is the backdrop that Marcus grew up in. Although his father was demanding and rarely complimented him, his mother Elizabeth more than made up for his father's seemingly cold reserve. She always encouraged her only son and loved him with unusual tenderness, while Marcus saw her as beauty unsurpassable. He got the best education money could buy, private schools, Princeton, where he majored in political science and economics, and then Harvard's Graduate School of Public Administration, which became the Kennedy School of Government prior to his graduation. In these years of his development, he came to see less and less of his ever traveling father, but he always remained very proud of his old man whom he considered to be a big-league industrial magnate chummy with Senators and Presidents notably Eisenhower and Lyndon Johnson.
Marcus followed in his father's footsteps. He took over the management of the Georgetown estate and became a financier and power player in the old style. During the brief Kennedy era he met Janis de Montmorency at a debutante ball and almost immediately they became sweethearts. They married in the mid sixties and had a son, Alan, who turned out to be their only child. Unfortunately, as Alan grew, he seemed unable to live up to his father's hopes for him. Power was just not his game. But, despite his not being a natural political man, he kept up the family tradition of studying at Princeton and receiving a degree in science and economics. Moving on to the State University of New York at Stony Brook, he earned a doctorate in Physics. When he graduated in the nineties, his father recognized that his son presented a problem. Marcus, a deliberate and decisive man, found himself at a loss with regard to his son's future. He knew that after his death, Alan would inherit a lot of money and he was afraid that his only son could end up a playboy or worse, a ne'er do well. After much consideration, he came to a decision, a rather ingenious one. He would establish a foundation with the purpose of working toward the sustaining of a clean, nonpolluting environment for America. The bulk of his fortune would go into the foundation, with Alan slated to be its Chief Administrator and a wealthy man. In the meantime, Marcus would create a small company for Alan to run. When he told him of his plan, the young man became very excited and with his father's money set out to build a business. And a thrilling venture this came to be.
As it turned out, his father's foresight was right on target and Alan thrived in the life Marcus had envisioned for him. And it didn't stop with the business. Along the way, Marcus, being a mover and shaker, came across many men of the high and mighty class. One was an industrialist, George Connolly, who made it big in defense R&D and production and later became even bigger trading in the currency market. Their association in business ventures grew into a close personal friendship and one evening while indulging their penchant for good scotch arrived at an unlikely deal. They would attempt to kindle a family merger. George had a daughter just a little younger than Alan. Inheriting her mother's Spanish roots, Tina was a dark beauty, full of passion, and her character was rounded out with wit, confidence and a brightness that glowed. What a great match Alan and Tina would make, they concluded in their alcoholic haze. Never mind the liquor that initiated the notion, here were men who expected to come up with good ideas and to make them happen. So, on that evening, destiny took the wheel. A family dinner was arranged at George's estate and, as soon as the matchups laid eyes on each other, their love was manifest, bristling in the air between them. They danced the night away as a Nor'easter dumped a foot of snow on Washington in the winter of nineteen ninety. When spring came, the dance continued during an extravagantly wonderful wedding where the families congratulated each other on crafting this union made in heaven. The couple chose to live in Washington's fashionable Virginia suburbs in an elegant old colonial southwest of Arlington just a quarter of an hour's drive to Alan's K Street office along Highway 50. And so, as the 20th century was coming to an end, the Winstons, Alan and Tina, were firmly established as a family to reckon with, she a grand hostess, he a wealthy rational business man, and with the benefit of names that opened doors, they were favored with preferential prospects.
As companies go, the one Alan built was a Limited Liability Company (LLC) that he named Climate Solutions (CS). He started with a dozen scientists, engineers and economists working at the office site on K St just west of 19th St. He developed a suite of offices equipped with the latest information technology where climate data from around the world could be picked up and processed. The collection and compilation of the information allowed CS to portray a picture of local and global climate over time and to extrapolate the results that might be expected in the future. To this end, the company requested and received grants from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) as well as from corporations involved in the emerging Green technology enterprise. In its consulting capacity, Alan's company advised its clients on potential energy technology needs and preferred economic policy. As part of the company's purpose, it also invested in Green technologies and, as the years passed and the 21st century was ushered in, CS came to prosper far beyond what Alan's father had imagined. It began to appear that Marcus Winston's investment in his son would become, like all his other investments, extremely lucrative. And so it was that fortune smiled on Alan as one success after another piled up and the money kept rolling in.
Life at home for the young Winstons was also auspicious. Not only was their lovemaking punctuated with zest and ingenuity but they were in love and genuinely liked and cared for each other. About a year after the wedding, Justine arrived and a year and a half later they were favored with a son, Holden, to carry on the Winston name. Gina, as they came to call their daughter, was a perfect baby, good-natured, sleeping peacefully most of the time and when awake always ready with a smile that accentuated her bright green eyes and hinted at the beauty she was to become. Holden, on the other hand, was different, finicky and seemingly unable to be satisfied, always demanding attention and getting it. Nevertheless, nothing the children did or were could stop the up and coming Winstons. While seamlessly furthering their ambitions, they built a family effortlessly. Without skipping a beat, they brought up their children to respect...
