Career
A popular personality and one of the most brilliant of the younger generation of contract bridge players, he was considered by Ely Culbertson to be his most likely successor. Born in 1907, Watson died suddenly at an early age in 1936. Apparently in good health, he became ill after lunch, summoned a doctor, was advised to lie down, and within three hours died in bed at home on East 75th Street.
According to Morehead, "There was no one in the world of bridge more popular personally than Mr.
Watson; he alone of the five or six nationally known authorities had no known enemies." Watson was a contributing editor of The Bridge World and bridge columnist for the New York Evening Post. (In obituary, The New York Times called it a "daily syndicated column on contract, which appears in The New York Post") His book Watson on the Play of the Hand at Contract Bridge, published in 1934, was enlarged and modernized by Sam Fry, Junior. in 1958 as As such it is still considered a classic by experts and other bridge readers of today.
In 2012 the American Contract Bridge League (ACBL) named Watson number 52 of the 52 most influential personalities in the organization"s history for his playing expertise and writings on bridge. First, American Bridge League (American Basketball League) National Challenge Team-of-Four Championship, 1932 and 1935 (Asbury Park Trophy, prior to the ACBL Spingold) First, American Basketball League Mixed Team-of-Four, 1935 (see Chicago Mixed Board-a-Match) First, Cavendish Club Invitational, 1933.
First, American Whist League All American Pair and All American Team-of-Four, 1933 and 1934.
First, Georgia State South-eastern Sectional Team-of-Four, 1931. Second, American Basketball League Pair, 1931 and 1932 (Fall National Open Pairs). Eastern Pair 1930; Eastern Team-of-Four 1933.
(American Basketball League) National Team-of-Four 1933 (Asbury Park Trophy).
Vanderbilt Trophy Team-of-Four, 1933 and 1935. American Basketball League Men"s Pair, 1935.
