Robert Watt

Ancestors

Descendants

Problems/Questions Profile manager: Vic Watt [send private message]

Native Washingtonian

Biography

Robert Denny Watt "Bob" was born on 29 SEP 1912 at Seattle, King, Washington.^[1] He was christened at the family home in Seattle on 14 SEP 1919 by W. A. Major, Minister^[2]

He attended the Lakeside School in Seattle, but he graduated in 1931 from the Tamalpias School, Marin, California. After high school, he entered the University of Washington, where he graduated in 1935 with a BS in Mechanical Engineering in 1935. While at the university, he joined Phi Gamma Delta Fraternity and was actively involved in fraternity life as a Fiji until he died.

After he graduated, he decided that he would like to go to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, perhaps because he and his girlfriend had broken up. He climbed in his car and drove across the country to Cambridge, Middlesex, Massachusetts. He arrived at MIT and presented himself, never having applied and with just his diploma in hand. They accepted him in their Mechanical Engineering masters program, which he attended from the Fall 1935 through Spring 1936.

Soon after starting the masters program, he met the love of his life, Catherine Viles, who he called "Kay." They dated for nine months, but Bob spent much of their dating time working on the furnace at Kay's family home. (This was the height of the Depression, and oil was very expensive. Bob converted the furnace so that it would burn a cheaper grade of diesel oil.)

Bob and Kay were married on 19 JUN 1936 at Trinity Episcopal Church, Concord, Middlesex, Massachusetts,^[3] and they spent their honeymoon driving across the country to Seattle. When Bob and Kay arrived in Seattle after their honeymoon drive to Seattle from Concord, they moved into Bob's mother's house on Madison Street, where they lived until June 1938. Bob also pursued getting his Mechanical Engineer's license, and in 1936, he became the youngest mechanical engineer licensed in Washington.

After the birth of their first child, Bob and Kay moved to 3617 47th NE in the Laurelhurst neighborhood in Seattle on 15 JUN 1938. When they moved into their new home in Laurelhurst. St. Steven's Episcopal Church had not yet been built, so Bob and Kay were attending St. Mark's Cathedral. On June 11, 1944, Dean MacLaughlan, Dean of the Cathedral, came to the family home to baptize the Watt's two children. He used the silver bowl which has become the Watt family's traditional christening bowl. After the ceremony, Dean MacLaughlan had a bowl full of holy water which he could not pour down the drain, so he threw the water on the roots of the old apple tree which stood outside the dining room window! (St. Mark's records only has an entry for the baptism of one Watt child on June 11, 1944.)^[4] In 1945, the family moved to the Broadmoor community in Seattle, into a large house at 1550 Shenandoah Drive East.

During his life, Bob belonged to the Seattle Golf Club, the Seattle Men's University Club and the Seattle Yacht Club. He was an excellent sailor and participated in the Star Boat World Championship races in 1949 at Chicago aboard Alcor as crew for skipper Sunny Vynne, Jr. He also sailed his own 39 foot R-boat, Lady Van, winning many races and championships on Puget Sound. Although he later purchased powerboats, he never lost his love of sailing.

Bob died on June 10, 2008, at the Swedish Hospital in Seattle.^[5] He was buried at Lake View Cemetery, Seattle, King, Washington.^[6]

Sources

1. ↑ Watt, Robert Denny: WA, King Co. Birth Certificate, Reg. #3467; copy in possession of Vic Watt.
2. ↑ Robert Denny Watt Memento of the Day of Baptism, "Given to God", published by the Westminister Press, Philadelphia 1918; in the possession of Vic Watt.
3. ↑ Watt, Robert Denny to Catherine Viles: MASS, Concord Marriage Certificate, in the possession of Vic Watt.
4. ↑ Baptismal records, St. Mark's Cathedral, Seattle, WA.
5. ↑ Washington State Department of Health. State Death Records Index, 1940-1996. Microfilm. Washington State Archives, Olympia, Washington. Ancestry.com. Washington, Death Index, 1940-2014 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2002.
6. ↑ Find A Grave, database and images (https://www.findagrave.com : accessed 03 January 2018), memorial page for Robert Denny “Bob” Watt (29 Sep 1912–10 Jun 2008), Find A Grave Memorial no. 28165796, citing Lake View Cemetery, Seattle, King County, Washington, USA ; Maintained by vwsheldon (contributor 46879310) . Memorial