Douglas Homer Watson died at his home in Marion on October 28, 2025 after living valiantly with Parkinson’s disease for 16 years. His beloved wife, JoAnn was by his side.
Doug was born in 1949 in Bryn Mawr, PA. to Anne Sweetser Watson and L. Hoyt Watson. He attended The Booth School, in Rosemont, PA and Friends Academy in North Dartmouth, MA. In 1967 he graduated from Phillips Exeter Academy in Exeter, NH and then attended Trinity College in Hartford, CT. To avoid being drafted during the Vietnam War he left college and enlisted in the US Coast Guard Reserves and served for 6 years.
In the summer of 1969, Doug moved to Freeport, Maine where he helped build Collins Brook School, the Summerhill school founded by his brother, Jacob, and wife, Sharon. As the school grew, he continued to be involved in the construction of new buildings. He also worked for Cookies, a construction company founded by Rick Leslie, a friend and architect of the school buildings.
In late summer 1973, having just completed his time with the Coast Guard, he threw away the wig under which he had hidden his long hippie hair, and headed across the country in a VW bug to join his sister Lea and friends on a commune in Boulder Creek, CA.
During six years on the commune, Doug became an excellent guitar player, became interested in the emerging field of solar heating, and got his contractor’s license. For several years he worked in Santa Cruz building Bill Lee’s line of ultra light race boats. Then for a year he attended The International Boatbuilding Training College (IBTC) in Lowestoft, England, a renowned training center for traditional boatbuilding and joinery. This is where he found his calling for wood craftsmanship and made the decision to move back to Marion, the place where he felt his heart truly belonged.
In 1991 Doug met JoAnn Jackson, a native of Marion. Three weeks later they decided to get married. In 1992 they were married on Ram Island. For 33 years he was JoAnn’s devoted husband, companion and protector, and held her in the highest regard. Both being excellent and avid sailors they spent summers cruising the New England coast on the family Block Island 40, Swamp Yankee, with her distinctive white spars and red hull. Doug and JoAnn were avid birders and travelled to Guatemala, Panama, Costa Rica. Honduras, Belize, Mexico, Puerto Rico, Ecuador, Peru, Bahamas, Argentina, Trinidad and Tobago, Bermuda, Antarctica, Galápagos, Spain, France, Iceland, and Ireland on birding expeditions, even in later years as Doug lived with the challenges of late stage Parkinson’s disease.
From 1995-2013 Doug worked for Ballantine’s Boat Shop in Cataumet, MA as a ship wright and rigger. Doug was a skilled craftsman and fixer of anything that needed to be fixed on land or sea. His craftsmanship can be seen in two hand-restored houses where he and JoAnn lived on Pitcher Street and Oakdale Ave. in Marion, on the Altar in St. Gabriel’s Chapel, in many boats that sail Buzzard’s Bay and in the Herreshoff Museum in Bristol, RI.
Doug loved Marion, where he spent every summer of his childhood. Marion was his favorite place in the world. For many years he crewed for his cousin, Bill Saltonstall in 110s, Shields, J22s, and the J30, Arbella. Bill says of Doug: “Whether cranking a winch or undoing a snarl of almost any kind, Doug was the go to person on our boat, and he took pleasure in solving each challenge”.
Doug was a family man, beloved uncle to his nieces and nephews. He taught many of them how to ride bikes, drive cars and sail and drive boats. He was gentle, generous and determined, never giving up on anybody or anything.
Doug is survived by his wife, JoAnn of Marion and Sarasota, Florida; his brother, Jacob Watson of Portland, Maine; his sister, Lea Watson, of Felton, CA; his sister Molly and her husband Rick Hawley of Ripton, Vermont. He was a loving brother and with JoAnn faithfully attended weekly sibling conference and video calls for over 15 years. He was also a loving companion to their dogs Molson, Jack and Reid with whom he had a mutual agreement to take care of each other. Doug is predeceased by his sister-in-law Kristine Watson, and his parents Anne and Hoyt Watson.
Friends, colleagues and family dearly miss him.
A celebration of Doug’s life will be held on Saturday, June 13, 2026, Doug and JoAnn’s 34th Wedding anniversary, at 10:30 am on Nye’s Wharf in Marion.
Donations in Doug’s memory may be made to The Michael J. Fox Foundation and the Community Boating Center in New Bedford.
