Born in Salt Lake City, Utah, to a locally prominent family, whose main business was a large dairy farm (Winder Farms), Winder attended Granite High School, where played tricks such as parading a cow through the school's halls when campaigning for student-body president.
[1] Winder received a Bachelor of Arts degree from University of Utah in 1955.
He was a law clerk for Allan Crockett, Chief Justice of the Utah Supreme Court from 1958 to 1959.
Governor Scott M. Matheson appointed Winder to Utah's Third District Court, where he served from 1977 to 1979.
In a 1996 poll of Utah lawyers conducted by the Salt Lake Tribune newspaper, Winder was the state's highest-rated judge.