Byrne Hall

Byrne Hall
The Academy building was turned over to DePaul University, and renamed Byrne Hall. Bygone DePaul | Special Collections & Archives

Introduction

About the DePaul Emeritus Society

DePaul University values its ongoing connections with its faculty and staff retirees, as it values their past contributions to the university’s mission. The DePaul University Emeritus Society was founded in 2008 with the merger of the Staff Emeritus Society and the Emeritus Professors Association. The Society is sponsored by the University’s Office of Mission and Values.

The purpose of the DePaul Emeritus Society is to provide a means for ongoing connection, communication, and socialization between the university and its emeritus faculty and staff, and between individual retirees whose professional lives were for so many years dedicated to university service.

Photos, events, and information of interest to members of the DePaul Emeritus Society will be posted to this blog. Please take a look, add your comment, offer to be an "author" or just enjoy.

Wednesday, December 16, 2020

In Memoriam - John R. Watts

 


Dr. John Ransford Watts Passes at Age 90 

Former dean of The Theatre School was instrumental in move of Goodman School of Drama to  DePaul University 

CHICAGO — Dr. John Ransford Watts, dean of The Theatre School at DePaul University from  1979 to 1999, died December 14 in Mundelein, IL. He was 90 years old. 

Watts, a teacher, designer, director, and scholar, was recruited as dean and charged with  reestablishing the famed Goodman School of Drama after its move to DePaul University from  the department of drama at the Art Institute of Chicago in 1978. Over the next 20 years, Watts  reshaped The Theatre School at DePaul into one of the premiere conservatory theatre training  programs in the country. 

“Watts’ work to secure the position of the school within DePaul, attract high-quality staff and  faculty, and develop a sophisticated curriculum made top 10 conservatory rankings, our new  facilities, and amazing alumni accomplishments possible,” explained current Theatre School  Dean John Culbert. 

Many of the programs and activities Watts put in place have become traditions at The Theatre  School: regional auditions, annual touring graduate showcases, and discussions with visiting  artists. He also started the Annual Awards for Excellence in the Arts gala in 1989, which has  generated more than $7 million for scholarships to date. In 1988, Watts was instrumental in  orchestrating DePaul’s acquisition of the historic Blackstone Theatre, now known as the Merle  Reskin Theatre, in Chicago’s South Loop. 

Watts maintained a distinguished and productive association with the performing arts,  humanities, and higher education in Massachusetts, California, and Illinois. He earned an  undergraduate degree and a Master of Education degree from Boston College, a Master of Fine  Arts degree from Yale University, and a doctorate from Union Graduate College. He completed  post-graduate work at Harvard, UCLA, and Oxford. For 15 years he served on the faculty of the  School for the Arts at Boston University as Professor of Theatre, and for five years as associate  dean. He was appointed as the founding chairman of the Massachusetts Council on the Arts and  Humanities, serving in that position for four years. 

In 1974, he accepted a one-year guest artist appointment to the faculty of the School of Fine  Arts at California State University, Long Beach, which led to his becoming a tenured professor,  associate dean, and then dean of the school. While in California he helped found and served as  director and vice president of the Public Corporation for the Arts. 

In 2000, John Watts received a lifetime achievement award from the Joseph Jefferson  Committee “for development and support of theatre artists and the Chicago theatre community  during his almost two decades as Dean of the Theatre School/DePaul University.” That same 

year, he also received the Via Sapientiae Award from DePaul University, its highest recognition  for excellent service and accomplishment. 

John and Joyce Watts were recognized in June 2018 in a naming ceremony of the Dr. John R. and  Joyce L. Watts Theatre, a 250-seat thrust theatre located on the first floor of The Theatre  School’s artistic home on the Lincoln Park campus. The Watts’ family also generously endowed a  scholarship supporting students in the playwriting program in 2006.  

“John Watts’ inspired leadership for the first two decades of The Theatre School’s life at DePaul  University built the foundation upon which all that we now do rests,” said John Culbert. “His  legacy will live on through the students, faculty, and staff who would not be here today without  his vision for the school.” 

John is survived by his wife of 45 years, Joyce L. Watts, and his son, David Watts.

Source: Joyce Watts, December 16, 2020


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