Psychologist Frederick Payne Watts aged 103, dies.

Frederick Payne Watts, 103, a founding faculty member of Howard University's Counseling Service, died of congestive heart failure April 7 at Howard University Hospital. He lived in Washington. In 1948, Dr. Watts established the university's liberal arts counseling service, which later became the University Counseling Service. He worked there until 1970, conducting a number of institutional studies of Howard students.

He was born in Staunton, Va., was educated in District public schools and graduated in 1922 from Dunbar High School. He entered Howard with the intention of becoming an ophthalmologist, but his intense interest in "why people misbehave" led him to psychology courses. He graduated in 1926 and took a teaching fellowship in psychology that allowed him to complete a master's degree soon after.

He taught for a year at Kittrell College in North Carolina and returned to Howard in 1928 as a faculty member. He received a doctorate in clinical psychology from the University of Pennsylvania in 1941, the first African American to earn a doctorate from the university, Penn officials said, and the nation's fourth African American to obtain a doctorate in psychology.

Drafted into the Army in 1942, Dr. Watts was a pre-induction classification officer and personnel consultant, setting up psychological testing facilities and supervising counseling of enlisted personnel. Discharged as a captain in the adjutant general's office, Dr. Watts was appointed assistant chief clinical psychologist for the Veterans Administration regional office in Philadelphia. He returned to Howard in 1948 and worked there for the rest of his career.

Dr. Watts published a number of professional papers and was a diplomate in clinical psychology from the American Board of Professional Psychology. He leaves nine grandchildren; and 15 great-grandchildren.!!
(Thanks to Patricia Sullivan Washington Post)