Obituary of Harry Kern Watson

Home: Monticello, New York USA Place of Birth: Gantt, South Carolina USA Pastor Harry Kern Watson was born on March 23, 1923 in Gantt, South Carolina and died December 15, 2012 in Middletown, NY at the age of 89. He is predeceased by his wife of sixty years, Betty Eugenia Watson, who died December 6, 2008, by his sister Ruth Elizabeth Watson, his son Gene's wife, Mari Ocker Watson and by two grandchildren, Sean Paul Watson and Genna SueAnne Watson. Surviving are his three children - Anne (Penny) Watkins, Harry (Gene) Watson and James Watson, eight grandchildren, and nine great-grandchildren. Harry was a man of many achievements. He spent his early years perfecting his skills as a concert pianist. He was well known in the Southeast before World War II as an outstanding classical and sacred artist on the piano and pipe organ. He was the organist at the Hamilton Square Baptist Church in San Francisco on their wonderful pipe organ and performed on the pipe organ at the Mormon Tabernacle in Salt Lake City, Utah. He continued to share his gift of music for more than 70 years, performing sacred piano concerts at various churches. Harry started his career serving in the US Navy from 1941-1945 as a radioman technician on blimps patrolling the east and the west coast and was a WWII veteran. He then went on to spend 28 very successful years as an engineer, inventor and author at IBM. Some of his technical papers can still be viewed on the Internet. Early in his career with IBM he helped develop their first computer, and later at the Livermore branch of the University of California Radiation Laboratory he worked on the computer end of top secret projects with Edwin Teller. Pastor Watson described his life as the story of "God at work in this world with someone who made himself available to God". He was always walking a humble, low-key path through this life. From the early 1960s until a couple of years before his death, he and his wife were the primary tools (with later help from missionaries like Eddie McMurray and Mari Ocker) God used to start at least six churches and many missions in the Hudson Valley and Catskill regions of New York. His calling led him to the disadvantaged and poor, the forgotten people. He did not have the advantage of existing church buildings and congregations. His work involved finding any building that was available, many of which were old, rundown, dirty rental halls that had to be cleaned up week after week, classrooms set up and broken down. His congregation relied on him to pick them up and bring them back home after service because they had no transportation but wanted to be there. Once he knew the church was in good hands with a pastor, he would move on to another area and start the whole process over again. It was at the last church he started where he decided to settle down and pastor it himself. He influenced hundreds of young people's lives over 50 years, many who have stayed in contact with him and visited him in his last days at the hospital and nursing home. Harry was a devoted husband, father and Christian. From around 2002 to 2008, Pastor Watson tried to scale down his church work, so that he could care for his wife with dementia/Alzheimer's disease at home (with help from daughter Anne, so he could still provide leadership for the church). He remained fully involved with family and friends right up until the day that his renal failure ushered him in to heaven to join his wife, family and friends there. A celebration of Harry's life will be held at New Salem Baptist Church, 62 Waverly Ave, Monticello, NY on Saturday, Jan 5, 2013 at 11:00am. In lieu of flowers, a memorial donation to the National Kidney Foundation at www.kidney.org or a donation to Pastor Harry's last church, the 1st Baptist Church of Middletown (a small, struggling church that nonetheless reaches out to the community), 11 Mulberry St. Middletown, NY 10940 (phone 845-342-1393), would be appreciated. Funeral arrangements are by Ramsay's Funeral Homes, Inc., 55 St John St, Monticello, NY, 845-794-2700. To send a condolence, please visit www.ramsaysfuneralhome.com.