Published Sept. 17, 2009
Sara Schilling, Tri-City Herald staff writer

Jim Watts was a high school dropout who needed help from the state superintendent to get into Columbia Basin College in Pasco.

About 50 years later, the CBC Foundation named him Outstanding Alumnus for 2009-10.

“Jim made this an easy choice this year,” said Tom Harper, vice chairman of the foundation board.  “Wherever you look, wherever there is some dynamic activity in the community, you see Jim Watts.”

The award was announced Wednesday at CBC’s annual all-employee meeting.

Watts is a longtime Tri-Cities labor leader and community volunteer. He served as president of the western region of the Oil, Chemical and Atomic Workers Union for more than 20 years, CBC said.

He also has volunteered for groups such as United Way and the Tri-Cities Cancer Center.
Watts enrolled at CBC in the 1950s.

“Through the years, I’ve watched this campus grow into what it is today,” he said during the meeting.  “It’s no longer a community college.  It’s developed into a regional college.”
Watts had dropped out of high school as a teenager and earned a GED.  At CBC, he was elected student body president of the first graduating class, the college said.

Watts said his time at CBC helped him grow, thanks in large part to the instructors who encouraged him.  Faculty and staff at the college continue working hard to help all the students who walk through its doors, he said.

“I can’t begin to tell you the difference attending (CBC) made in my life,” Watts said.  “There isn’t a day that passes that I don’t think how different my life would have been if I hadn’t had the opportunity to attend this school.”

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