Elmer Winter: Difference between revisions - Wikipedia

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[[Aaron Scheinfeld]], owner of a [[Chicago]] law firm, hired Winter in 1936 and Winter moved back to Milwaukee when the firm opened a new branch there. Unable to find a secretary available to type up a last-minute brief that had to be filed with the [[Wisconsin Supreme Court]] in April 1948, the two attorneys were only able to finish the work with the assistance of a former employee who worked all night typing. This experience led them to consider that there might be a business opportunity in providing temporary services to businesses that needed assistance.<ref name=NYTObit/>

Despite the fact that almost all of their initial temps were women, they chose the name Manpower at the suggestion of a friend.<ref name=NYTObit/> They rented a Milwaukee storefront, offering bookkeepers, stenographers and typists to businesses as a sideline venture from their law firm. Tough their first year was unprofitable, they were able to start making money in 1949. Manpower offered courses to help workers improve their skills on new technology and was the first to offer temporary staffing for industrial positions.<ref name=NYTObit/>

Winter retired from the firm in 1976, but maintained an office at the company's headquarters where served as chairman of the firm's advisory council. He regularly drove into the office until three weeks before his death, where a sign on his desk read "Hang in there, Elmer".<ref name=NYTObit/>