Donald Netterville Watson

Donald Netterville (Don) Watson was born on September 21, 1921, in Winnipeg, Manitoba, and was educated there. He worked after school hours as an apprentice to Konnie Johannesson's Flying Service. By 1938 he had soloed in an Avro Avion but since he was only 17, and the minimum age for licencing was 19, he could only build up flying time in the ensuing period. He earned an Air Engineer's Licence at that time.

Watson joined Canadian Airways the same year as an air engineer and remained there until 1940, when the Canadian government requested his assistance with the technical, administrative and flying functions of the newly formed British Commonwealth Air Training Plan (BCATP). He served that organization with distinction, assisting with the formation of No. 5 Air Observer's School. In 1945 he served the Alaskan Wing of the United States Army Air Force Transport Command as a Flight Engineer. At the end of World War II, he joined Canadian Pacific Airlines (CPA).

In 1946 he used his organizational skills to co-ordinate, with the Saskatchewan government, the first systematic air ambulance service on the North American continent. The world-respected Saskatchewan Government Air Ambulance Service operated with one specially equipped Noorduyn Norseman, which he served as air engineer. J.J. Audette was also a pilot for this service. During Watson's tenure the service transported more than 6,000 patients in all types of flying weather, some from isolated and nearly inaccessible locations to medical treatment centres, possibly saving hundreds of lives.

He joined Ontario Central Airlines at Kenora, Ontario, in 1949 and became Managing Director.

In 1958 Watson joined the executive staff of Pacific Western Airlines (PWA), which was incorporated in 1953 by R.F. Baker. He was appointed Assistant to the Vice-President and General Manager. In 1964 Watson became Vice-President, management, and technical services. PWA, Canada's largest independent airline, maintained scheduled flights in western Canada with charter flights to Europe, Hawaii, and Mexico. During the expansion years of the late 1960's and early 1970's, the airline set up the triangle service between Vancouver, Victoria and Seattle, Washington; the Calgary-Edmonton, Alberta, air-bus service; and the northern service to Yellowknife and Inuvik. Watson rose to become President and Chief Executive Officer, an office he held from 1970 to 1976, when the airline was taken over by the Alberta government. He retired from PWA in 1976.

While he was President of PWA, Don Watson assisted people in many countries by sending company aircraft on emergency food and relief missions to Africa and other destinations.

Watson was elected Chairman of the Air Transport Association of Canada (ATAC) for the 1964 and 1974 terms in recognition of his understanding of global air transport problems and their solutions, and his contributions to Canadian aviation. He succeeded C.L. 'Punch' Dickins as Chairman of the Board of Canada's Aviation Hall of Fame in 1975.

In 1976 he was appointed Chairman of Canadian Cellulose Company, and in 1978, President and Chief Executive Officer. In 1982 he was named Chairman of B.C. Resources Investment Corporation.

Watson was made an Honorary Life Member of ATAC in 1976. He was recognized by the International Northwest Aviation Council by being named to its Roll of Honour in 1986. In 1984 he was awarded a Lifetime Achievement in Aviation Award from the British Columbia Aviation Council and was given a Pioneer Award from the Western Canada Aviation Museum in 1995. In 2004 the newly renovated Transport Canada building at Richmond, B.C. was named after him. He died at Vancouver, B.C. in 2013.

Donald Netterville (Don) Watson was inducted as a Member of Canada's Aviation Hall of Fame in 1974 at a ceremony held at Edmonton, Alberta.