Peter Ryan Watts

Peter Ryan Watts was born on January 25, 1977 in Fontana, Calif. He lived in San Bernardino, California until 1988, at which time his family moved to their home in Mentone, just east of Redlands, California.  He became an Eagle Scout as a member of Boy Scout Troop 33 of Redlands, was active in the Trinity Episcopal Church youth group and was a National Merit Scholar semifinalist. He graduated from Redlands High School in June 1995, and from Trinity University in May 1999, majoring in religious studies and philosophy. While attending Trinity, Peter worked with inner-city missions in Philadelphia and Jackson, Mississippi sponsored by Intervarsity Christian Fellowship. Following Trinity, Peter served a year with Americorp/Vista in San Antonio, assisting area families attempting to get off welfare by connecting them with sponsoring service clubs and churches. Peter is now a representative with Waddell & Reed Investment Services in San Antonio.

His mother Susan teaches second grade at Reche Canyon Elementary in the Colton Joint Unified School District. She graduated from Big Spring High School in Big Spring, Texas and Texas Tech University, with a Bachelor of Music Education degree. Her hobbies include bird watching, orchid growing, and playing the cello, and fishing when she goes on vacation. She and Richard enjoy performing in the Riverside Community College orchestra. She is a greeter and driver for elderly parishioners at Trinity Episcopal Church in Redlands. Both she and Richard have served on its vestry.

Peter's grandparents, Owen H. and Yvonne Ivie, are retired and now live in Pecan Plantation on the outskirts of Granbury, Texas. Yvonne Ivie was active in the Main Street Church of Christ in Big Spring,Texas, and involved in community activities. Owen H. Ivie managed the Colorado River Municipal Water District, headquartered in Big Spring, Texas, for many years. His extensive efforts in providing water production and conservation for West Texas were recognized by naming the O.H. Ivie Reservoir in his honor in 1990. This lake is located at the junction of the Colorado and Concho Rivers in the Texas counties of Runnels, Coleman and Concho. Susan is the oldest of three sisters. Her middle sister Sandra Massey lives in Ft. Worth with her husband Bobby. Their son Greg and oldest daughter Kerry are married, and their youngest daughter, Kimberly, attends the University of Texas in Dallas. Bob and Sandy are the proud grandparents of one year old Calvin Massey, son of Rebecca and Greg Massey. Susan's sister, Nancy Stringfellow lives in Burke (Fairfax County), Virginia with her husband David. Nancy and David's daughter, Ann, attends Gettysburg College. Their son John is a senior in high school.

Richard graduated from Lubbock High School in Lubbock, Texas, from Texas Tech University with a Bachelor of Music degree, and from the University of Texas in Austin with Master of Library Science degree. He also received a Master in Business Administration from California State University, San Bernardino. He and Susan met at Texas Tech, and were married in 1968. He is in charge of the cataloging and processing of library materials for the San Bernardino County Library, as well as overseeing its homepage and on-line catalog. He plays the viola, but his primary hobby is amateur astronomy. He belongs to the Riverside Astronomical Society. Richard is an active member of the Redlands Morning Kiwanis club, serving as its Webmaster. He is a lay reader at Trinity Episcopal Church, and edits Trinity's homepage.

Richard's parents are both deceased. His father, William (Bill) was a science teacher at Lubbock and Monterey High Schools in Lubbock, Texas, and his mother was an elementary school secretary. Bill and Ruth Watts were long-time members of First Baptist Church in Lubbock. His father was an avid Texas Tech basketball fan and an amateur archeologist. Ruth loved to read and sew in her spare time. Richard's sister, Dr. Harriett Watts, lives in Quedlinburg, Germany, which is a Unesco World Heritage Site, noted for its centuries'-old half-frame wood houses and Romanesque churches. She teaches English and serves in an administrative position for the public schools in the state of Sachsen-Anhalt. She was the assistant director of the Lyonel-Feininger-Gallerie in Quedlinburg for several years before assuming that position. She has published several books and articles concerning Dada, an important European art movement in the early twentieth century, specializing in the works of the artist/writer Hans (or Jean) Arp. She also helps mount art exhibits in various European venues. She and Richard traveled together to Szeged, Hungary in August 1999 to view the final total solar eclipse of the twentieth century. Peter joined her in 1994 during her annual visit to the English Summer School in the village of Wust, Germany, where English-speaking volunteers help residents of the former East Germany to learn English in this program.