Reverend William Samuel Winston

Religious leader Bill Winston was born on May 6, 1943 in Tuskegee, Alabama to Sammie and William Winston. Winston graduated in 1967 from the Tuskegee Institute (now Tuskegee University) in Tuskegee, Alabama, where he served in the ROTC program. During his career, Winston also attended Logos Bible School (later Logos University) in Altamonte Springs, Florida in 1985 and Oral Roberts University in Tulsa, Oklahoma in 1996.

For six years, Winston served as a fighter pilot in the U.S. Air Force in 1973 during the Vietnam War. From 1973 to 1985, he worked at IBM in Minneapolis, Minnesota as a marketing representative and regional marketing manager. During this time, Winston decided to enter the ministry; in 1988, he and his family moved to Chicago, Illinois where he founded the Living Word Church of Chicago, Illinois in 1989. In 1990, Winston relocated the church to Forest Park, Illinois, where it became the Living Word Christian Center, eventually serving more than 20,000 members. In 1998, Winston established the Joseph Business School in Forest Park prior to founding Bill Winston Ministries, the Faith Ministries Alliance, Golden Eagle Aviation, the Living Word Christian Center Prison Ministry, the Joseph Center for Business Development, Covenant Bancshares, Inc., and the Royal Christian Bookstores and Cafes, located in Forest Park Plaza, Illinois and the Washington Plaza Mall in Tuskegee, Alabama. As part of his ministry, Winston hosted the Believer’s Walk of Faith television and radio program and authored more than fifteen motivational and business books. In 2016, Winston delivered the invocation at the Tuskegee Airmen’s seventy-fifth anniversary gathering and the fortieth anniversary celebration of the Tuskegee Airmen’s Chicago DODO Chapter in Gary, Indiana.

Winston’s numerous honors and awards include a Distinguished Alumni Award from Tuskegee University in 2015 and an honorary doctorate of humane letters from Friends International Christian University in Merced, California in 2016. For his service in the U.S. Air Force, Winston received the Distinguished Flying Cross, the Air Medal, and the Squadron Top Gun Award.

Winston and his wife, Veronica Irene Brown Winston, live in Forest Park, Illinois. They have three children: Melody, Nicole, and David, and eight grandchildren.

Reverend Bill Winston was interviewed by The HistoryMakers on May 25, 2023.