Kevin Watters

Kevin Phillip Watters

Resident of Northfield, NH

Passed on July 25, 2011, following a brief illness while visiting his family in Los Altos.

Kevin was born at Stanford Hospital in 1971 and raised mainly in Los Altos, though he was an international jet setter, living in Tokyo, Amsterdam, and Sydney before age 5. Returning from Sydney with an Aussie accent, he attended elementary, junior high, and high school in Los Altos. He graduated from Duke University in 1993 with a Public Policy degree. An avid Blue Devil basketball fan, Kevin attended 3 "Final Four" tourneys, including a Duke national championship game.

After a brief foray in the corporate world with Proctor & Gamble in sales, Kevin demonstrated his uncanny ability to anticipate future trends. He and a Duke classmate founded "The Main Quad", one of the earliest websites for college students, where they offered one of the first e-cards and webpage builders, before most people knew what the WWW was. After The Main Quad was acquired by Student Advantage in Boston, Kevin moved Back East as SA's VP of Marketing for several years.

Then things got really interesting. He bought a 40-foot RV and travelled across the U.S. searching for the perfect place to put down roots. He eventually settled on a 40-acre farm in the Lakes Region of NH. When Kevin was not out plowing the fields or feeding the horses on the farm, he was creating a multi-faith retreat center called "Soul Search." His vision was to provide a "faith tradition-neutral" place and way for people to find their life's purpose and their own way to God. The full-scale Rodin replica of "The Thinker" in his front yard let passersby know that his place was no ordinary farm.

Kevin was a devoted and active Christian Scientist and bible scholar. He was "First Reader" at his church in Laconia, NH, and he was pursuing his passion to help and heal others as a Christian Science Practitioner. Kevin also loved mentoring teens and young adults. Kevin was a "hands on" kind of guy, playing just about every role from chief cook and bottle washer at summer camp to camp director, retreat leader, strategic planner, and board member for various CS institutions. Recently he led groups of high school-aged leadership trainees on an outdoor adventure trip to the Alaska glaciers and to Peru where they built an adobe-brick schoolhouse for a remote mountain village.

Kevin was one of those people who actually "walked his talk." What made him so special was his goal to "add value" to everyone he met, young and old. His bright smile, a genuine commitment to helping others, and the sense of humor of a big kid made him an inspiration to others. His idea of fun was costume theme parties, ballroom dancing, card and board games, and sports like bowling, broomball, snowboarding, pick-up volleyball and basketball, and golf.

Spontaneous and a little bit of a rebel with a cause, Kevin will be greatly missed by his parents, Don and Sue Watters of Los Altos, his sister Gretchen of San Carlos, his beloved Bassett Hound Lucy, and many aunts, uncles, and cousins on the West Coast, as well as countless friends and colleagues in New Hampshire and around the world.

A celebration of Kevin's life will be held on Friday, August 5, at 10 am, at the Los Altos History Museum garden patio, 51 S. San Antonio Road, Los Altos.

In lieu of flowers, if you'd like to honor Kevin, his favorite passions were Adventure Unlimited / DiscoveryBound (www.adventureunlimited.org/) and The Albert Baker Fund (www.albertbakerfund.org).