William Watts (Lansing)

William Andrew Watts, father, educator, and avid collector, passed away on April 2, 2025, in Lansing, Michigan, just three weeks shy of his 76th birthday.

Born in Birmingham, Alabama, in 1949 in the heart of the Jim Crow South, William moved north to Lansing, Michigan, as a teenager to live with his brother Jonathan Watts in pursuit of greater opportunities. In Lansing, he attended Sexton High School and later studied Dramatic Arts with a focus on Children's Theatre at Eastern Michigan State University.

In the late 1970s, William hitchhiked across the United States and relocated to his beloved San Francisco, California, where he ultimately raised his family and spent the vast majority of his life. On the West Coast, he was a K-12 educator, the co-chair of the San Francisco Day School Multicultural Committee as well as the first person of non-Japanese descent to be a vice-president of the Bonsai Society of San Francisco.

He had more than a green thumb— more like a green touch. Anything he worked on, he could make grow, and that included people. Aside from tending a bonsai garden, he loved to teach. One of his first jobs was at a 4h summer camp coaching basketball in Lansing, where he taught an 8-year-old Magic Johnson. In California, he initially worked at the Western Addition Cultural Center, then continued his teaching career with Shazam, a children’s theatre group in Marin City, funded by the San Francisco Foundation with former partner Susan Gold. While he worked at various schools throughout the Bay Area, it was his time with high school students that inspired him most. As a paraprofessional at an alternative high school, he once worked with a student who could not read. Discovering the student’s passion for cooking, William used that as a bridge, bringing in cookbooks and reading recipes together. By the end of the year, the student was not only reading confidently but also making plans to attend culinary school.

He had an insatiable appetite for music, high-quality home-cooked food, and Zydeco dancing. Often, his joy for life was infectious, whether it was striking up a conversation with a neighbor, listening to his curated collection of records, or tending to his plants. In addition, he loved both jazz and world music, and for many years taught students at various schools around San Francisco to build kalimbas (finger pianos) and xylophones. It was not unusual to wake up to the sound of him playing the tuba at 6am in the basement, or see him on the dance floor in his signature western-wear in Alameda, CA.

He could tell you anything you could possibly want to know about any sport, and followed his team, the Michigan Wolverines, religiously, meeting his college friends (The Derels) annually at the Rose Bowl for many years.

He is survived by his daughters Rosa Marimba Gold-Watts and Anise Gold-Watts; two grandchildren, Vincent and Selma; sisters, Doris Donawa, Barbara Vaughn, Geneva Etheridge, Rosetta Jackson, and Vera Morrow; brother, Nathan Watts; sons-in-law, Steven Arboleda and Jørgen Gjelsvik; and a large network of extended family and friends.

Gone before his time, but hopefully he is peaceful and surrounded by his bonsai.