David Winoker Remembered By Wife as Cautious Man
By Daniel Edward Rosen June 18, 2012 12:20 pm
reprintsThe wife of real estate investor David Winoker told mourners during his funeral service yesterday that she encouraged her husband to go on what would become a fatal skydiving birthday party with friends.
“He never said ‘no’ to me. Maybe this time, he should have said no,” said Jillian Winoker during the memorial service for her husband at the Temple Shaaray Tefila in Bedford Corners, as was reported by The NY Post.
“I can’t think of when he said ‘no.’ That was the problem,” she added, according to the NY Daily News.
She went on to describe her husband as a man was cautious by nature.
“He would not drive above the speed limit, even if I made us run very late,” she told mourners. “He didn’t go out in the sun without applying six different layers of suntan lotion.”
Mr. Winoker’s three children —Jared, 15, Hilary, 13, Allison, 7– were also at the service.
When addressing mourners during the ceremony, daughter Allison held up a mock cover of Time Magazine’s “Person of the Year” featuring Mr. Winoker on the cover.
“He was supposed to win the ‘Father of the Year’ award and I was supposed to treat him like a president,” said Allison, who reportedly wore one of her father’s red ties, according to the NY Daily News.
The timing of the memorial service was particularly tragic: Sunday was Father’s Day and the 83rd birthday of Sid Winoker, Mr. Winoker’s father.
Mr. Winoker was celebrating a friend’s 50th birthday party at Skydive The Ranch last Friday when the instructor he was connected to may have become unresponsive during the jump. That instructor, Alexander Chulsky, 25, of Brooklyn, reportedly suffered from a pre-existing medical condition that may have contributed to the skydiving accident. The impact of the parachute deploying may have knocked Mr. Chulsky out, causing the two to corkscrew down to the ground, sources told The Commercial Observer.
Mr. Chulsky was a native of Staten Island who played football at New Dorp High School and graduated from the school in 2003, according to the Staten Island Advance.
drosen@observer.com
