The Oklahoma City Community Foundation trustees and staff offer our sincere condolences to the family of Wes Watkins.
A life-long public servant, Wes Watkins served in the Oklahoma State Senate and the U.S House of Representatives, where he represented Oklahoma’s 3rd Congressional District for 20 years. Following his long and distinguished career in public service, Congressman Watkins and his wife Lou retired to a simpler life in Stillwater, Oklahoma – the town where they first met more than 60 years ago.
Wes graduated from Oklahoma State University with a bachelor’s degree and a master’s degree and upon graduating, he became a land developer and homebuilder. Throughout his life, he and his wife Lou made significant contributions to the university. And today his legacy has been memorialized with several buildings on the Oklahoma State University Campus.
In 2013 Wes and Lou worked with the Oklahoma City Community Foundation to create a deferred charitable gift annuity with real estate they had sold that had increased in value over the years. This allowed them an opportunity to support several causes important to them, such as the Oklahoma FFA Foundation and the OSU Foundation as well as the Lou Watkins Endowed Lectureship at East Central University in Ada, Oklahoma.
They also established the Mary E. Watkins Scholarship at the Oklahoma City Community Foundation in memory of his mother. This scholarship encourages students from Bennington High School in Bennington, Oklahoma, to further their education by attending an Oklahoma-based college or university. “My mother stressed the importance of education to anyone she met,” said Mr. Watkins. Recently, Wes and Lou spearheaded efforts to create another scholarship at OCCF for employees of Legacy Village of Stillwater, with plans to award the scholarship next year.
Wes’s decades of leadership and service have uniquely contributed to our great state. We are proud to have partnered with Wes and Lou and to continue honoring Wes and extending his incredible legacy.
Wes Watkins passed away on March 26th at age 86. Visitation is set for 5:00 to 7:00 p.m. Saturday, March 29th at the Strode Funeral Home in Stillwater and his funeral is set for 1:30 p.m. Sunday, March 30th at the Wes Watkins Center for International Trade Development on the OSU campus.