Dr. James Chestnut Watson
Dr. James Chesnut Watson
Born in 1936 in Trenton, New Jersey, James Chestnut Watson was an inquisitive young boy whose parents raised him with the motto "anything in life is worth working for." His love for education took him from voraciously reading encyclopedias with his father as a child to Lincoln University where he earned a Bachelor's degree in Liberal Arts in 1958. From there, he went on to Howard University's School of Medicine. After receiving his medical degree in June 1964, he began a distinguished medical career.
By the time he finished medical school, he had married native Houstonian Pauline Katheryn Thomas. After completing his internship, he and his young family moved to Houston, Texas. Watson had joined the Air Force Reserves in Indiana and continued his service full time at Ellington Air Force Base as Chief of Dispensary Services. After a couple of years of providing medical care to servicemen, he opened his own practice. He had been the first African-American intern at his hospital in Indiana, and in Houston, he was the first African-American to own his own clinic and building in the Sunnyside neighborhood.
Over the years, Watson developed strong ties to the Sunnyside community and was dedicated to the idea that everyone should receive medical care regardless of whether they could afford it. He enforced this idea in his private practice by providing his services even if patients could not pay or paid with goods rather than money. In 1970, he went back to school and received a Master Degree in Public Health to expand his knowledge of communal health care practice. When the opportunity arose, he served the public more officially in numerous positions including the Board of Managers of the Harris County Hospital District, Public Health Director of the City of Houston, and Medical Director of the Harris County Sherriff's Department Division.
Education was another way to spread his message about the importance of healthcare for all. Watson was a faculty member at Baylor College of Medicine, Texas Southern University School of Pharmacology, and University of Texas School of Public Health at various times in his career.
Dr. James Watson was a man with a passion for people and public health. Through private practice and public service, he touched the lives of many Houstonians. By encouraging the city and county to improve community healthcare for all, he helped expand the boundaries of city responsibilities. He was a man of firsts: the first African-American resident in his hospital in Indiana and the first black Public Health Director in the City of Houston. In addition to fighting for the rights of everyone to receive adequate medical care, he fought to be accepted in the larger medical community and pushed past the societal limitations placed on African Americans.
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