Titles can be misnomers; nice people don’t always finish last; and the dastardly actions of dictator Fidel Castro in Cuba so many years ago actually have been a benefit to women’s golf here in Wisconsin.

With that disjointed little prelude completed, our story can move on.

Meet Aimee Linneman, the popular, ever cheerful and highly industrious Director of Communications for the Wisconsin State Golf Association.

When I called Aimee one day recently and inquired if she would consider a story about herself in this magazine, she gave a little laugh and thanked me for asking. Then she said, “But why me? I’m probably the most uninteresting person you’d ever meet.”

So forewarned, I went to meet and talk to her anyway. I’m very happy I did. Who she is, what she does, and the epic tale of her family’s flight from Cuba and eventually finding haven here in Wisconsin is a fascinating story.

We’ll begin first with that latter aspect.

Aimee’s antecedents on her father’s side were from northern Spain, but immigrated to Cuba early in the past century. Her grandparents were Roberto and Carmen Vinent, and her father was Roberto Jr. You recall the Cuban revolution of the late 1950’s? (Check out the video or DVD or The Godfather II.) When Castro and his insurgents ousted Fulgencio Batista and his regime, everyone in Cuba rejoiced. They thought everything was going to be peaches and cream. They didn’t realize all that was happening was that one dictator was replacing another. Thousands of Cubans, primarily businessmen and people who owned property, were in deep trouble. Castro either hated these people because he thought they had prospered under Batista, or he simply wanted to take over whatever they owned. The Vinents were part of this group. They actually had to flee for their lives. Many ended up in other Caribbean nations; some in Mexico and Central America; but most of them landed in the United States, and particularly Miami, Florida.

With such an influx of thousands of people in a very short period of time, obviously many problems occurred. One such problem was that work was almost impossible to find. It mattered not that most of these people were well educated and had good jobs in Cuba. There just wasn’t anything available. Many humanitarian organizations and churches throughout the United States came to their help, and tried to absorb as many of these unfortunate newcomers into their own communities. One of those groups was the St. Alphonsus Church in Greendale, and one of the families they approached was the Vinents. They offered to find them places to live and work in the Milwaukee area, and the Vinents accepted.

Aimee’s father, Roberto Jr., still in his teens, went to work for the Milwaukee Electric Company. To say that he succeeded would be a prime understatement. Despite having to master English and the ways of a new country, he rose through the ranks and earned many promotions. He also met a lovely young lady named Patricia, and they married. After a number of years, Vinent left the Electric Company and went to work for the First Wisconsin Bank. Starting as a lowly teller, he worked his way up to becoming a Vice President. Along the way he took up the game of golf, and became surprisingly good at it, a low handicapper. He joined the North Shore Country Club, and became one of its more active members. He bought a beautiful home in Mequon, and the Vinents’ two little girls, Aimee and Jennifer, went to Homestead High School.

Vinent also became an avid football fan, Green Bay Packers, of course, and also followed the fortunes of the Milwaukee Brewers.

Of the two daughters, Aimee embraced the game of golf as ardently as did her father. “From the time I was about six he’d take me out playing golf at North Shore with him all the time,” Aimee recalled. “He was such a big part of my life.”

Aimee became so good at golf that she starred on the Homestead High School girl’s team for three years and even earned All-Conference honors.

“I said Dad loved football,” Aimee said. “He also thought that football was an integral part of the college scene, and that I should attend a college that had a good football team. Can you imagine that? My grades, though pretty good, weren’t good enough to get me into the University of Wisconsin in Madison, so that’s why I ended up at Whitewater.” There she majored in communications and also played on the golf team.

The summer after her graduation, Aimee wasn’t quite sure what she was going to do with her life. To pass the time and make some spending money, she took a job as a bartender. But unknown to her, there were already forces at work on her behalf.

“That was the summer of 1998,” said Gene Haas, then the Executive Director of the Wisconsin State Golf Association and has since retired. “One day I received a call from one or our board members, Dave Uelmen, who was also a member of North Shore Country Club. He said if I needed a young addition to my staff, that he knew of a recent UW Whitewater grad he’d like to recommend. He gave me her name and I thanked him and told him I’d consider it. Then about a week later I got another call, this one from Bob Vinent, also a member from North Shore and a fine golfer. I hadn’t known Bob for very long but had great admiration for the man. He asked me if there were any openings on my staff, and if there were, he’d like to suggest his daughter, Aimee. Bob knew nothing of Dave’s call. Well, with two such distinguished gentlemen in her corner, I felt I had to think seriously about her.

“Then a couple of other things were taking place that helped me in my decision,” Haas said. “A young lady intern on our staff who had been responsible for taking care of the Women’s Golf Association tournaments left. A short time before, the US Golf Association announced a new program to encourage young people to learn the business of golf, and were providing funds to the individual associations to implement it. So all of a sudden I had not only a need to add to our staff, but the money to pay for it. I called Aimee and asked her is she’d like to come in and see me.

“That interview lasted for all of about a minute,” Haas said. “I knew almost instantly that Aimee was a very special person. I offered her the job and she gave me that big smile of hers and replied ‘yes’ before I was even done talking. That was the shortest interview I’d ever done, and probably my best one. Aimee has been a tremendous addition to the WSGA. I think everyone on the staff would agree with me.”

One who most surely would is Bill Linneman, who was then head of course rating for the WSAGA and is now Director of Rules and Competition for them. A while after Aimee joined the association the two of them began dating and are now married. Their proudest possession is their 10-month old (at the time of this writing) daughter Keeley.

“I suppose Keeley will be playing golf, too, in a few years,” I jokingly said to Aimee. She chuckled. “She’s already at it. The PGA sent her a little foot-long putter for Christmas, and she knows how to use it.”

One of Aimee’s responsibilities after she was hired was to serve as the liaison between the WSGA and the “Wisconsin Golfer” magazine, which is published in Madison. That’s where the title “Director of Communications” originated. But over the years she has taken on just about every responsibility of the Wisconsin Women’s State Golf Association.

In some states, the men’s and the women’s golf associations are separate. In Wisconsin, the WSGA services both, about 40,000 men and 15,000 women, even though the Wisconsin Women’s State Golf Association is a separate group.

Aimee’s primary work now involves administering all of the tournaments and events of the WWSGA. So instead of “Director of Communications” as a title, perhaps a more appropriate one would be simply “Director.” Aimee smiled at my suggestion. “I really don’t put a lot of emphasis on titles,” she said. “I like my work, and I’m happy that what I do is meaningful and is appreciated. That’s all that counts.”