William L. Watson ’57

Larry died June 23, 2020. “Medical technology is right at the edge of a cure,” Larry remarked a few months ago as he began an experimental therapy for esophageal cancer. “I think I would rather have participated in the excitement from a safer position but at 84, I’ve been fully blessed as it is.”

Larry was one of five classmates to come to Princeton from East St. Louis, Ill., where his grandfather started a bank in 1905. Larry majored in mechanical engineering and worked most of his career in the chemical industry. He retired at age 62 when he correctly forecast a pullback in Bayer Corporate Engineering’s capital spending. He continued as a consultant for the American Society of Mechanical Engineers and eventually moved to a summer home on a lake in east-central Ohio, where he gardened, fished, and built things with his tools including a model paddlewheel boat based on 19th-century technology. Larry had a sense of fun and lived well.

Larry is survived by his wife, Pat, whom he married before our senior year. Their daughter, Lisa, arrived a few days after our graduation, making her the class baby. Lisa was followed by two sons, Christopher and William.