William Watson

Bill (William) A. Watson, 72, of Dresden, Tennessee, passed away at his home on September 29, 2026 after a brief illness.

Bill was born October 27, 1953 in Fargo, North Dakota to Willam M. Watson and Elizabeth Shoemaker. According to those who knew him then, he was both the second-wildest person in his class and the smartest. In high school he won the North Dakota State Cross Country Championship—two miles in 9:22:5, a state record—and is a member of the Fargo North Hall of Fame. He attended North Dakota State University, the University of Nebraska, and received the Doctor of Pharmacy degree from the University of Utah.

Professional positions included The Children’s Hospital of Buffalo & SUNY Buffalo, where he specialized in pediatric toxicological emergencies and general clinical medicine; The University of Missouri–Kansas City (UMKC), where he served within the School of Pharmacy and the Department of Emergency Medicine, the University of Texas at Austin & UT San Antonio, where he managed pharmacology practice tracks and contributed to the South Texas Poison Center, and the American Association of Poison Control Centers in Washington, DC.

BIll had a national reputation as a researcher and educator when he joined the faculty at UMKC, and his experience was invaluable for the pharmacy school during a phase of rapid growth in programs, faculty and student body. Bill was loved and a bit feared by students. He held them accountable to be engaged and he also went the extra mile to be sure they learned, understood, and had opportunities they may not have had otherwise. Bill mentored and willingly collaborated with young faculty so they could grow and advance their careers. He played a major role in the development of medical residents in the emergency department at Truman Medical Center. He has dozens of publications with attending physicians and their residents, advancing both the science of the discipline and the careers of his collaborators. Bill had a laid-back attitude, coupled with a sharp wit and intelligence he knew when to express. Bill did not suffer fools. UMKC colleagues with Bill would remember that he would not eat chicken and very few vegetables. If there was a faculty/staff event, there better have been beef on the menu.

From 2003-2005, Bill was the Associate Director for Toxicosurveillance at the American Association of Poison Control Centers. In that capacity, he was the insightful and tenacious driving force behind the development and implementation of the first automated 24/7 poison exposure surveillance system in the United States. The program’s goal was early detection of outliers that signaled public health events, chembioterrorism incidents or product hazards in order to enable rapid alerting and intervention. Achieving that goal required the development and refinement of outlier detection algorithms; implementation of surveillance case definitions for syndromic surveillance; both temporal and spatial monitoring across substance categories, individual products, and clinical effects; automated near real-time data analysis and reporting; and the painstaking review of each detected outlier signal to assess public health significance. These data were then used to support regulatory actions, media alerts, child-resistant closure and other packaging requirements, safety evaluations for Rx to OTC switches and pesticide registrations.

Bill’s colleagues on this toxicosurveillance project recall his warmth, keen wit, humor, and his own memorable quirks. He was generous with his knowledge, a talented mentor, and a thoughtful leader, humble about his many skills.

In 2006 Bill retired and bought a sailboat, his beloved Kittiwake, learned to sail, and lived on the boat in Marathon, FL during the winters. He made many, many friends in the boating community, and they remember him as a loyal friend and reliable softball player. His friends report him being a great listener who drank bad coffee and made friends into family. Always the teacher, when he moved to Tennessee he donated the Kittiwake to the Florida Sea Base, a world-class national high-adventure program run by Scouting America.

He was a loving son, brother, uncle, and grand-uncle, coming to visit but not for long, offering a listening ear and plenty of advice, and playing a mean game of cribbage. Across Bill’s adult life was his deep love for German Shepherds, including Rex, Targhee, Alta, and others.. Evie was his beloved companion in the last years of his life. To honor Bill, please consider a donation to a local German Shepherd rescue.

Bill was preceded in death by his parents and his sisters Mary Ellen Oberlander and Margaret Watson. He is survived by his brother-in-law Ralph Oberlander, nieces and nephew Lisa, Mark, and Sarah Oberlander and their families, and countless friends who already miss him desperately. There will be a celebration of life ceremony in Fargo, North Dakota sometime in the next many months. Fair Winds, Captain Bill.