In Memoriam: Raymond A. Watt, 90

July 9, 2009 8:00 AM

Raymond A. Watt, a USC trustee and a prominent Southern California real estate developer who has been credited as being among the first in California to develop condominiums and timeshares, died of natural causes in Rancho Mirage on July 7. He was 90.

Watt was founder and chairman of the board of Watt Companies, one of the largest owners, developers and managers of commercial real estate in the Western United States. The company has developed more than 8 million square feet of commercial and retail properties and has been responsible for more than 100,000 homes and apartments, 50 shopping centers, six master-planned communities and three major hotels.

“The entire Trojan Family is deeply saddened by the loss of Ray Watt,” said USC President Steven B. Sample. “An iconic figure in the Southern California real estate industry, Ray was also an outstanding Trojan. He was not only one of the hardest-working individuals I have ever known, but also one of the most visionary. His leadership as a trustee has had a dramatic impact on the development of our campus.”

Watt founded his first construction company in 1947, with the goal of building homes to accommodate Southern California’s returning GI’s. From a small start, focused on constructing custom homes and some remodeling of existing properties, Watt Companies grew to become a major force in shaping the landscape of the Southland. A few of the company’s most prominent projects include the Watt Plaza Office Towers in Century City, Los Angeles’ Sheraton Gateway Hotel and Renaissance, a 375-home master-planned community in Inglewood.

During the Nixon administration, Watt took time out from the construction industry to serve as assistant secretary of Housing and Urban Development. He also was a former president of the National Corporation of Housing Partnerships, established by Congress to accelerate the development of middle- and low-income housing.

Throughout his career, Watt received numerous accolades for his industry leadership and commitment to community. He was singled out by Builder Magazine as one of the 100 foremost builders of the 20th century and in 1985 was inducted into the National Association of Home Builders’ hall of fame.

For his participation in the Los Angeles Real Estate and Construction Industries Council, which raises funds for City of Hope, Watt received City of Hope’s Spirit of Life Award in 2001. In 2008, the Century City Chamber of Commerce designated him as its Individual Citizen of the Year.

Watt was also committed to programs benefitting local youth. He was a former trustee of the Hugh O’Brian Youth Foundation and a director of the Los Angeles County Sheriff Department’s Sheriff’s Youth Foundation. In 2008, the Cushman Watt Scout Center - a new Boy Scouts facility in the heart of Los Angeles - was named in honor of Watt and fellow contributor John C. Cushman III.

Watt’s involvement with USC dates back several decades. He was a longtime member of the university’s premier support group, the USC Associates, which was founded in 1959. He was elected to the USC Board of Trustees in 1968 and received an honorary doctor of laws degree from the university in 1974. He was also a member of the Friends of the USC Libraries.

At the university, Watt was a strong supporter of programs ranging from athletics to the USC School of Policy, Planning, and Development, from architecture to the USC Norris Comprehensive Cancer Center. In 1969, he gave $1 million for construction of a building that now bears his name, the Ray and Nadine Watt Hall of Architecture and Fine Arts.

In 2005, he assisted with planning and made a second $1 million gift supporting the Robert H. Timme Architectural Research Center, a third-floor addition to Watt Hall named for the former dean of the USC School of Architecture.

Watt’s name is also memorialized at USC in the form of Watt Way, a major thoroughfare on the University Park campus. The parkway was named in 1984 as a tribute to Watt’s contributions to campus landscaping and his chairmanship of the trustee planning committee that helped oversee USC’s preparations for the 1984 Olympics.

Watt is survived by his third wife, Gwendolyn; three children, Sally Oxley, Janet Van Huisen and J. Scott Watt ’68; and numerous grandchildren and great-grandchildren.

In lieu of flowers, the family has requested that donations be made to the USC Elaine and Kenneth Leventhal School of Accounting.

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