Gayle Wineriter, federal mediator

Gayle Wineriter, 84, who spent 25 years with the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service, died Feb. 11 at a hospice in Ocala, Fla. He had metastatic cancer, his son Nicholas Wineriter said.

Mr. Wineriter came to Washington in 1960 as an organizer with the AFL-CIO. In 1964, he joined the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service.

He was a federal mediator assigned to offices in St. Louis, Houston and Hono­lulu and also worked as a national representative based in Washington. Over the years, he helped negotiate settlements in labor disputes affecting tire manufacturers, airlines and the steel and communications industries.

He retired in 1989 as a special assistant to the director of the mediation service.

Gaylerd Frank Wineriter was born in Salt Lake City and served in the Army as part of the postwar occupation of Japan in the 1940s.

He returned to Salt Lake City in 1948 and worked as an electrical mechanic repairing pinball machines. In the 1950s, he worked for the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees in Salt Lake City, Seattle and Pittsburgh.

In retirement, Mr. Wineriter moved from Washington to Bonita Springs, Fla., and later to Ocala. He enjoyed golf.

His wife of 56 years, Virginia Zonarich Wineriter, died in 2007.

Survivors include three sons, Nicholas Wineriter of Rockville, Gaylerd S. Wineriter of Keller, Tex., and David Wineriter of Palatka, Fla.; two brothers; a sister; six grandchildren; and three great-grandchildren.

— Matt Schudel