Donors

Albert Edward Winemiller, Sr., son of Jacob and Lucretia Cooper Winemiller, was born August 14, 1916 near Sheridan, MO.  He was also the nephew of Albert H. Cooper. He was a graduate of Sheridan High School and Northwest Missouri State Teacher’s College in Maryville, MO.  In 1937, while students in college, Albert and Virginia were married. Albert graduated in 1940 with a teaching degree in Business and Agriculture.   He taught 3 years in a one room school and was Superintendent of the Grandview, McFall and Dearborn, MO Schools before entering the U.S. Navy in World War II.  He served in the South Pacific as a Lieutenant Jr. Grade.  After the war, Albert and Virginia moved to Kansas City, Missouri and Albert worked for the Veterans Administration and the Federal Aviation Administration where he was a Division Chief 24 of his 31 years in government.  

Virginia Ina Needels, daughter of William and Minnie Wall Needels, was born October 21, 1915 at the family homestead near Parnell, Mo.  She graduated from Ravenwood High School and Northwest Missouri State Teacher’s College.  Virginia graduated in 1940 with a teaching degree in Home Economics, English and Social Studies. She taught in one room schools in McFall and Dearborn, Missouri, and in Kansas City.  She was an active member of the Daughters of the American Revolution.

Albert and Virginia loved caring for family and volunteering in Scouts and Broadway Methodist Church where they were members for 58 years. They were loving caring religious hard working patriots and examples of God's very best.

Denny Sapp, a 1968 Northwest graduate who became a Naval aviator and served as a Blue Angels solo demonstration pilot for two seasons, established the Anne Morgan Sapp Dream Team Scholarship through the Northwest Foundation.

“She was just always there to do something for somebody else,” Denny said. “The empathy that she had was unreal. I just never knew anybody like her. I guess that’s why I wanted to be part of her life.”

The scholarship will assist students who qualify for the Northwest Promise, previously known as the American Dream Grant. The inaugural scholarship of $1,000 was awarded for the 2023-24 academic year.

Denny told Anne about the scholarship’s creation on her birthday, July 29, just weeks before she died on Aug. 14, after a three-year battle with multiple myeloma.

“She was incredibly tickled about it, knowing that it was going to be a scholarship for people who were in need,” Denny said.

Anne was born and raised in Elliott, Iowa, and graduated from Northwest in 1969 with a bachelor’s degree in English. She was an active member of Sigma Sigma Sigma sorority and served as its president. She also was voted Northwest’s Tower Queen.

Denny was born and raised in Red Oak, Iowa, and graduated from Northwest with a bachelor’s degree in secondary education with an emphasis in industrial arts. He was active in the Phi Sigma Epsilon fraternity and met Anne while he was serving as the Phi Sig house manager.

As a member of the U.S. Navy, he made three deployments to Vietnam, recording 367 combat missions and receiving numerous decorations. He then was assigned duties as a test and evaluation pilot at the Naval Weapons Center in China Lake, California. From there, Denny was selected to join the Blue Angels in Pensacola, Florida, where he flew as a solo demonstration pilot in 1975 and 1976.

Sapp retired from the Navy after 23 years of service with the rank of captain. He then flew for Western Airlines, Alaska Airlines and Delta Air Lines.

Due to Denny’s Naval service, the couple moved frequently and Anne carried her passion for education with them. Anne’s first teaching position was in a north Florida high school with more than 4,000 students on the heels of racial integration, which sparked her advocacy for social justice.

When the couple moved to Thousand Oaks, California, in the early 1980s, Anne started a learning assistance program at California Lutheran University. She finished her career teaching at Gig Harbor High School in Washington, where she taught for five years and was voted favorite teacher three times by the senior class.

“She was an educator at the top of the board,” Denny said. “She was always concerned about students not having funds to go to college.”

Once retired, the couple traveled extensively, including multiple trips to Cambodia, where they worked with a non-government organization (NGO) to help rescue trafficked children and open a school.

“I wanted people to understand what kind of a person she had been and the accolades that she had received her entire life,” Denny said. “She was always willing to step to the background and not be in the limelight. She liked to sit in the front row of class, but she never wanted to be in the limelight.”

Bill was born at home in Nevada, MO on Oct. 27, 1923.  Bill or Billy (as his family often referred to him) was the first-born son to Paul and Zelma (Rider) Winters.  The family then moved several times in Bill’s life residing in Metz, Rich Hill, and then in Raytown, MO. Bill was a fantastic athlete from a very young age.  As a thirteen-year-old freshman, he beat out a junior to start quarterback.   As a fourteen-year-old freshman, he beat out the senior pitcher on the baseball team.  Bill started and lettered all four years in Football, Baseball and Track. Bill graduated from Raytown High School in 1941.  Upon graduating, Bill was awarded a Full Ride Scholarship for Football to Northwest Missouri State Teachers College located in Maryville, Missouri.

The summer before college, Bill (a seventeen-year-old) tried out and made the roster of the St. Louis Cardinals minor league baseball team.  He played pitcher/1^st base. After a summer of baseball, Bill packed up and headed to NW Missouri State in the fall 1941. Although Bill may have been a better baseball player, he opted to play football in college, Bill claims that it was more fun.  Bill played for nearly two seasons.  The positions that he played in college were Right Halfback and Left Cornerback. The team earned the title of Conference Co-Champs Bill’s freshmen year.  Bill’s sophomore year the team won the conference again.

Bill enlisted in the Navy Jan. 14, 1943.  Bill said once, “Join the Navy and see the world, thousands of dollars wouldn’t pay for all the places I’ve been.”  Bill was assigned to the #48 USS Dobler, a brand-new ship whose purpose was to be a Destroyer Escort. Bill traveled across and back over the Atlantic Ocean twenty times.  Bill’s job was on a deck gun, he was the 1^st loader.  There were four shells at a time, the job required a tall person, and Bill stood at 6ft 1 and a half.  Bill finished his service with the title, Boatman’s Mate 1^st Class. When the war ended with Germany, Bill still had four years left to serve.

Bill was then sent to US Navy Camp 815 located in Terceira, Azores, a Providence of Portugal.  Bill and four others were to replace eighty sailors that had been running the docks.  Bill was in charge of it all, the four other sailors and the Portuguese hired to help. It was here that Bill met his bride, Maria Gorgita through her dad who was a Port Captain. During their courtship, they would sight see and go to the beach a lot.  They would often be found spending a whole day tooling a cabin boat around the island.

The base was shut down in December of 1946, but, because Bill still had two years left to serve, he was to fly to Exeter, England, to get new orders. This became a very long adventure where Bill saw a lot of Europe.  During this time, word came around that the Navy would let you out on request if you served four of a six-year contract.  Bill was discharged in February of 1947.

Bill and Maria returned to KC and had a courthouse wedding June 12, 1947. Bill and Maria had five children which they resided with in the Kansas City, Hickman Mills and Grandview areas. After returning from the service, Bill worked as a Union Commercial Carpenter at the Sugar Creek Oil Refinery.  Bill also did carpentry work with his father on and off. Next, Bill worked doing light commercial construction as a superintendent.  While employed there he put footings in for the Western Auto sign downtown. Bill eventually gave up commercial construction and decided to go into residential housing.  Bill worked in this capacity for forty years as a superintendent building houses.  Finally working for his son, Bill Jr. for two years before retiring in 1990.

Maria suffered from poor health the majority of her life in the US.  She lived to celebrate their 56^th wedding anniversary and then died in Sept. of 2003. After Maria’s death, Bill busied himself at Bill Jr’s farm, where Bill cared for the cattle, helped with the haying and did farm maintenance.  Bill loved listening/watching baseball and football. He was a sports nut and a KC fan to the core. He liked to travel, always the driver. In his later years, he spent time reconnecting with family and researching his roots. Bill loved his family, he traveled countless miles to visit with many of them.

Bill passed away February 21, 2022.