Family Endows New Chair In Music

College officials will announce today the creation of the G. Gordon Watts Professorship in Music, a new tenured chair in the Faculty of Arts and Sciences (FAS).

The chair, funded by a $3.5 million gift from Beverly Watts and David Watts '55, is named in honor of Mr. Watts' father.

"We're thrilled about it," said Professor of Music and Department Chair Kay K. Shelemay. "We're deeply appreciative that the Watts family has chosen to support music at Harvard."

The Music Department will form a search committee to find candidates for the post, which could be awarded to a scholar in any area of musical study, according to Laura W. Smith, associate director of the services at the Development Office.

The Watts Professorship will be the sixth named chair in the Music Department, giving the department a total of 21 Faculty members.

The gift is part of the University's capital campaign drive, which is in its final year of efforts to raise $2.1 billion for the University and $965 million for FAS.

"One of the real goals of the campaign was to add Faculty members so that we could improve the student-Faculty ratio and so that we could add to the breadth and depth of subject matters that the Faculty can study," Smith said.

"We're trying to raise a total of 40 new chairs [and] we're a little bit more than halfway there," she added.

Other chairs funded during the capital campaign include posts in genetics, classics, biology and environmental studies.

The capital campaign has also raised funds for financial aid and the Widener library renovation project, which will begin in June.

According to Smith, the Watts family chose to fund a music chair on the basis of their longstanding commitment to the subject.

"Music is a big part of their family," she said. "They are avid listeners, in particular of classical music."

Beverly Watts sang for 25 years in a choral society, Smith said, and David Watts took numerous musical electives at the College, despite concentrating in economics.

David Watts, who was out of the countryyesterday, served as managing director at ScudderInsurance Asset Management until 1997.

"We want Harvard always to be a place wheretalented young musicians and leading musicscholars can flourish and where people who have nomusical background can be exposed to the field,"he said in an interview with the Harvard Gazette.

Mr. Watt's father, after whom the chair isnamed, died earlier this month

David Watts, who was out of the countryyesterday, served as managing director at ScudderInsurance Asset Management until 1997.

"We want Harvard always to be a place wheretalented young musicians and leading musicscholars can flourish and where people who have nomusical background can be exposed to the field,"he said in an interview with the Harvard Gazette.

Mr. Watt's father, after whom the chair isnamed, died earlier this month