Watson selected by bar foundation

The selections are based on recipients' dedication to improving the administration of justice in the state, leadership in the legal profession, civic service, integrity and support of the foundation.

Besides being in private practice, Watson has been a professor of justice studies at Chadron State College since 1976. He is a native of Bridgeport and a graduate of Hastings College.

Watson and Stephen Smith of Scottsbluff were the only attorneys from the western portion of the state selected for the 2007 Class of Fellows.

Watson has served on several law enforcement policy bodies. Nebraska governors appointed him to two terms on the Nebraska Crime Commission and to the Nebraska Policy Standards Advisory Council. He spent 12 years, including two years as chairman, on the advisory council, which oversees the Nebraska Law Enforcement Training Center and the certification and training of police officers.

He currently is a member of the board of directors of the Nebraska Children’s Home and the Nebraska Children and Families Foundation and is chairman of the Museum of the Fur Trade board.

In 1987, Watson was Chadron State’s first recipient of the Nebraska State College System Board of Trustees Teaching Excellence Award. He also received the Outstanding Police Educator Award from the Police Chiefs Association of Nebraska in 1993.

While at Chadron State, he has directed 31 criminal justice foreign study tours, 30 of them to London.

Watson and his wife, Kit, have three children.