Former Kentucky Supreme Court Justice Donald C. Wintersheimer will be honored May 21 with the Covington Award, the top award presented each year at the annual dinner and fundraiser for the Friends of Covington, an organization created to promote and improve the city.
The dinner will be held on Thursday, May 21, at the Twins Oaks Golf and Plantation Club on 43rd Street in Covington’s Latonia neighborhood.
Tickets are still available at $55 per person and may be purchased by writing to the Friends of Covington, Box 1243, Covington, KY, 41012.
Portrait of Don Wintersheimer at Chase Law School
Covington native Wintersheimer had a long and distinguished career as an attorney in private practice that began after his graduation from the law school of the University of Cincinnati. He later became the City Solicitor for the City of Covington, a position he held for 14 years, and became well known throughout the region for his battles with utility companies that had proposed rate increases. In one of those cases, he was the lead attorney in a case where Cincinnati Bell was required to refund $1.3 million to its Northern Kentucky customers.
Wintersheimer served on the Kentucky Court of Appeals before he was elected to the state’s highest court in 1982. He was re-elected in 1990 and 1998 and retired from the bench in 2006.
He and his wife Alice, a teacher retired from the Covington Independent Schools, live in Covington and have five adult children, three of whom are attorneys.
In the past, the Friends of Covington, created in 1987, has honored some of the city’s most dedicated leaders and opinion makers. The complete list of former winners, from 1987:
Ralph V. Haile, Jr.
William P. Butler
Benjamin Bernstein
Judith G. Clabes
David F. Stolberg
Merwin Grayson, Jr.
Bishop William Hughes
Arlene Gibeau
Gary R. Bricking
William T. Robinson, III
Anthony Neil Durso, Sr.
Mary Middleton
Father William Mertes
Mary S. Northington
Mike Mangeot
Thomas A. DiBello
Bernard Moorman
Eva and Oakley Farris
Otto M. Budig, Jr.
Charles B. Eilerman
David C. Herriman
Jane D. Purdon
Ralph A. Drees
Jim and Donna Salyers
Wally Pagan
Dennis Williams
