Background
Born in Cumberland, Maryland George W. Watts was the son of Gerard Snowden Watts and Ann Elizabeth Wolvington. After graduation, Watts joined his father"s tobacco commission business in Baltimore.
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George Washington Watts
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He received his early education in private schools in Baltimore and graduated from the University of Maryland in 1871 with a degree in civil engineering.
Career
Alongside James B. Duke, he co-founded the American Tobacco Company, as well as Watts Hospital, the first hospital in Durham, North Carolina, which prompted the establishment of Duke University. Becoming associated with Washington Duke of Durham, North Carolina in 1878, he helped organize and incorporate West. Duke Sons and Company, a tobacco business in which he became a stockholder and secretary and treasurer. In 1890 Watts helped to organize the American Tobacco Company and in 1892 the Erwin Cotton Mills Company.
Watts became one of the largest textile mills in the United States Interested in the total welfare of his employees, Watts built libraries, parks, and playgrounds for them.
He also built and endowed Watts Hospital in Durham, North Carolina. Watts was elected the first president of the Commonwealth Club of Durham, which made possible the transportation facilities required to make that city a prosperous and commercial center.
Duke University
By 1922, Watts Hospital"s quality of care and its philanthropic mission to provide healthcare to the working poor was so well-regarded that James B. Duke and North Carolina Governor Cameron Morrison proposed the creation of the state"s first four-year medical college, Duke University, to educate students in conjunction with clinical services provided at Watts Hospital. Watts School of Nursing
In addition to founding the clinical hospital, George Watts also established the Watts Hospital Training School for Nurses at the hospital, in 1895.
Renamed the Watts School of Nursing (Watts SON) in 1976, the school"s first graduate, Ethel Clay, received her nursing degree in 1897.
Now part of the Duke University Health System, Watts SON has been housed at Durham Regional Hospital since 1976.
