Obituary of Cecil Wayne McLester

Cecil was born in Dallas to Cecil & Nettie McLester, the oldest of four children and their only son. He graduated from high school in Carrollton, TX, attended Texas A&M and North Texas University. He completed his college degree at Phoenix College in Arizona by attending night classes while working full time for Motorola. He moved several times during his 41 year career, ending in Southern California in the late 70’s. He married Marcella Mattson McLester in 1984. The majority of Cecil’s career with Motorola was spent doing technical sales and he finished his time there as Corporate Sales Manager to General Motors where he worked on their first electric vehicle, the EV-1. Having received a home winemaking kit for Father’s Day from his children, he began making wine as a serious hobby. After winning a Master of Enology award in an international home wine competition, he started McLester Winery in 1979. The winery was located in the glide path for LAX resulting in two house wines, Runway Red and Runway White, whose labels featured a 747 bearing down on a runway flanked by vineyards. These wines brought immense notice by the press and he was later credited with having started the proprietary labelling movement. Cecil finally sold the winery to new owners who moved it to Antelope Valley and kept him on as winemaker until he retired in 2012. Cecil is survived by his wife, Marcy, and 2 children (Anna and Andrew), 2 grandchildren (Amber and Dash) and 1 great granddaughter, Grace. “Wherever a beautiful soul has been, there is a trail of beautiful memories.” And those memories of Cecil will live on in all of us.