John William Watson

Cryptside service will be held, 3pm, Tuesday, December 30th at Rose City Cemetery, 5625 NE Fremont St, Portland, OR 97213  503-281-3821.

John “Doc” Watson left this world peacefully on the morning of November 23rd, 2014 just five weeks shy of his 93rd birthday.  He lived a long and happy life that began and ended in Portland Oregon.  His childhood was rather idyllic and he often told us stories about it like when he dressed up in an Uncle Sam costume to participate in the Junior Rose Parade, and how he delivered the Shopping News on his bike in the Beverly Cleary neighborhood (his childhood home base) with his dog Sheba running along.  When he reached high school, he and a buddy took a summer late-night dip by sneaking into Grant High School’s swimming pool.  He also repeatedly mentioned watching a schoolmate, who was a superb gymnast, climb Grant’s smoke stack to perform a handstand on top.  If you’ve seen how high Grant’s chimney is, you’d be impressed too!

Dad’s first love was always radio electronics and after he became a ham radio operator in his teens he led other friends to become ham radio operators too. He enlisted in the Navy during World War 2 and was a radio technician there.  He luckily got to spend much of his time in the service in the Hawaiian Islands.  After the service he briefly worked for the FCC as an investigator and another oft-told story was about helping nab some errant fellows who were using the radio airwaves to run a “bookie” operation up in Seattle.  But his new father-in-law had a perfect sales spot with a fancy expense account in an insurance company so dad pursued that for several years while starting a family.  His heart was never in insurance however, and when the company sold he returned to radio electronics via a new adventure - working a year in Alaska for RCA, (which was where he earned the name Doc since there were too many guys named John when he got there.)

Dad didn’t like being away from his family and his family didn’t want to move to Alaska so he returned and found his most beloved job with Ma Bell, again in electronics.  His attendance was near perfect til a year or so from retirement when computers came on board and took the fun out of it for him.  Retirement looked good as he had also become an avid bowler and now he could bowl to his heart’s content.

Dad had lots of friends stemming from his various hobbies, but the strongest bonds involved a group he grew up with - several couples that stayed close from childhood and college until death.  They spent many vacations together both within the states and abroad.  They always spent the 4th of July together and somewhere along the way dubbed themselves the “Odd Squad,” (taken from the “Mod Squad.”)  It was a group full of colorful characters and I can still hear the raucous laughter when I think of their many, many dinners together.

Dad was married 60 years to his high school sweetheart and raised three daughters.  I remember feeling pretty proud of my dad when he made us the first family on our street to have a color television that he built himself using a HeathKit.  He played ping-pong and tennis with us, drove us where we needed to go, got us ski and piano lessons,and bailed us out of the occasional tough situation. In short, he helped whenever he could, the best he could.  He is preceded in death by his wife, Audrey and middle daughter, Gayle.  Surviving are daughters Valerie and Sandra, grandsons John and James and great-grandchildren Landon and Vivian.

(Dad was also a big fan and donor to Medical Teams International so if you have the desire, please make a donation to this group!)