International (TPI) in 1994 to better reflect the international scope of the association.


Bobby adds, “I never saw him at any convention or conference over the years, but that visit made us aware of ASPA, so I thank him for it. When we saw all that ASPA offered, we joined and what we learned helped us grow our business.”


Te Winstead family gathers for a photo (from left to right): Bobby, Kim, Shelby and Robert.


Te next year, they expanded the zoysia fields to 36 acres. Te first day they cut grass, Bobby said, “Dad, we don’t have enough land.” Mr. Bob answered, “Tat’s all we’ve got.” So, Bobby went to Sam T. Wilson, Mayor of Arlington and owner/operator of S.Y. Wilson & Company, the gentleman they bought their fertilizer and nuts and bolts from, and asked him where they could find some land. Bobby says, “Mr. Wilson owned two or three different tracts and worked with me—a college kid—to buy them. He took a chance on me and our sod business grew from there.”


Bobby played football, ran cross country and competed in track while in high school. He says, “My only real job was selling the vegetables and then the sod.” He had planned to go to the University of Tennessee in Knoxville. He says, “I was enrolled, had a room, but couldn’t figure out how to do all the things that needed to be done to run the farm from across the state. So, I told my parents it just wouldn’t work and ended up going to the University of Memphis (Memphis State University at the time) with a major in marketing and a minor in business management.”


Bobby scheduled all morning classes and was out working on the sod farm by noon. His Mom, Frances, answered the phone and Mr. Bob continued working with him, as his own work schedule allowed. Bobby says, “We continued to buy land, including buying more land from Mr. Wilson’s relatives.”


Te Winsteads had never heard of ASPA, but in 1981, when all they had was the 11 acres, another local farmer who was growing sod came to the farm. Bobby says, “I think he mainly came to check us out, but he brought us a Turf News magazine and said we needed to look at being a member of ASPA.” Te American Sod Producers Association (ASPA), was renamed Turfgrass Producers


TPI Turf News November/December 2018


Family Team Life wasn’t all work for Bobby. He was out with friends at a restaurant in Walton Beach, while vacationing in Florida over the 4th of July holiday, when he met this great- looking local girl named Kim. “She was fun to be with, smart and spunky, and she kind of liked me, too.” Long story short, she enrolled at Memphis State University and the two became a team.


Bobby and Kim married on March 14, 1987. Tey started their own family with a son, Robert L. Winstead III (Robert), and a daughter, Shelby.


Shelby started showing developmental problems as a baby. By the time she was six months old, Bobby and Kim had begun their quest to learn the cause of her problems. Eventually the diagnosis was Pervasive Developmental Delay, which led to years of doctors’ appointments, specialists and therapies all with limited results. Te breakthrough came when Kim put her on a horse and a whole new world opened for her. Tat story is beautifully told in the reprinted article, “Hippotherapy to Barrel Races,” on Page 88.


Shelby poses with one of her horses, Truly a Peponita, nicknamed Truck. 83


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