John Watson was a Yankee industrialist, a mechanical engineer who oversaw gritty tool-and-die plants and factories producing automobile parts and large equipment on the homefront during World War II.
But he started out as a piano player.
And, while forging a successful career in manufacturing, Watson kept a spot in his heart for the arts–an affection he fed late in life by taking a handful of classes at Elmhurst College.
Now, at 90 years old, the otherwise modest Watson has decided to act on his lifelong affection in a grandiose way. He contacted the college and set up a trust in order to donate $500,000 to its proposed performing arts center.
“I think it’s an outstanding school of its type,” said Watson, a Massachusetts native who moved to Elmhurst in 1962. “What I wanted to do was help others to get that kind of education.”
He had done a little of that before his monumental bequest. In 1994, Watson established the Grace T. Watson Memorial Endowed Scholarship, in memory of his wife of 61 years who graduated from Elmhurst College in 1974. The scholarship has distributed more than $5,000 to economically disadvantaged students.
But college officials are hoping his largess will spark additional donations at a critical time in planning the $20 million performing arts center. The structure is the liberal arts college’s major focus in an ambitious plan that calls for enhancing the reputation of what officials hope will be considered one of the pre-eminent small liberal arts colleges in the Midwest.
“I just think it’s a wonderful way for someone who has always loved music in his own life and been a friend of the college for years to put his stamp on the future,” said Elmhurst College President Bryant Cureton. A section of the center will be named for Watson and his wife, Cureton added.
News of Watson’s bequest came about a year after the Illinois Board of Higher Education in late 1996 funneled $500,000 to the college for the performing arts center. Still, the college has raised less than $3 million for the project, which is expected to include a 1,000-seat hall for large productions, an intimate 200-seat recital hall, a studio for small-scale performances and an art gallery.
“It’s a dream, but it’s a real dream,” said Cureton, who added that the college is undertaking a market-needs assessment to determine specific features of the performance center. “We’re working very hard on it, and John’s commitment will really help spark a lot more interest.”
Watson’s own interest in music was sparked at age 10, when he learned to play the piano while growing up in New England. From that foundation, he learned to play a number of other musical instruments, including the organ, saxophone and trumpet.
In his teens and 20s, Watson earned a living playing music while studying mechanical engineering at the Rhode Island School of Design and serving his apprenticeship. He played in big bands and jazz bands. He played vaudeville; and he played the piano at theaters showing silent films. He made $2 to $5 a night and loved it.
“In silent movies, you played all for mood,” he said, chuckling. “You didn’t have time to read music. You had to look at the movie and find the right music to fit the mood on the screen.”
But playing the piano in big bands and silent-movie theaters was a precarious way to make a living. “It wasn’t very profitable,” Watson recalled.
He opted for the more practical endeavors of teaching engineering and science, which led to a career as a plant manager and vice president of Greenfield Tap and Die in New England.
In 1962, he and his family transferred to the Chicago area and settled in Elmhurst. He worked for the next decade as a general manager and vice president of three manufacturing plants for TRW Inc., which had purchased Greenfield Tap and Die.
Watson retired in 1972 and traveled extensively with his wife. He also took a few classes, including history and drama, at Elmhurst, but never received a degree.
He lives in the Lexington Square Retirement Community in Elmhurst. Although 90, Watson still swims three days a week and still plays the piano–well–for residents at Lexington.
