Oklahoma’s Will Rogers Memorial Commission chose the 2006 National Day of the Cowboy to anoint Dr. Doug Watson to portray “Will Rogers in the Classrooms” at colleges and schools.
Dr. Watson, an Oklahoma Baptist University professor, has played Will Rogers in Chautauqua settings nationwide and appeared as the cowboy humorist on C-Span and in other media.
“Professor Watson is a leading Will Rogers scholar and a powerful actor who brings alive the wit, wisdom and splendid role model qualities of the world’s greatest cowboy philosopher,” Michelle Lefebvre-Carter, director of the commission, said.
The appointment of Dr. Watson was formally made in the foreground of the famous Electra Waggoner statue of “Will Rogers Riding into the Sunset” astraddle his favorite horse, Soapsuds, that shadows the tomb of the cowboy on the grounds of a the nine-gallery memorial museum in Claremore, Oklahoma.
Dr. Watson will maintain a teaching load at the Shawnee, Oklahoma University while traveling to colleges and high schools to discuss Will Rogers while “in character.”
“The performances by Dr. Watson simply are electrifying,” said Lefebvre-Carter. “The professor projects the same humor, humility, humanity and honesty that made Will Rogers one of the world’s most famous men of the 1920s and 30s.”
Over the past seven decades since Will Rogers perished in an Alaskan airplane crash, “there never has been a comparable human to emerge as a guidepost for humanity,” Lefebvre-Carter said. “Dr. Watson dramatically brings alive the philosophy and remembrance during a time when the wisdom is sorely needed.”
Schools may book Dr. Watson by email or phone: doug.kay.watson@sbcglobal.net or 405.788.9630.
Schools may also contact the director of the Will Rogers Memorial Museum,
Steven K. Gragert:
skgragert@willrogers.com or 918.343.8118.