Brother Corey C. Watson, Beta Phi ’89, a former Consul and a member of the Beta Phi Hall of Honor, died in Pasadena, California after a long struggle with pancreatic cancer. He was 48. A Celebration of Life will be held at 11:00 am, February 15, 2016 at La Canada Presbyterian Church, 626 Foothill Blvd., La Canada, CA. A barbeque will follow at the Watson residence at 220 N Rafael Ave., Pasadena, CA.
Brother Watson was a highly respected attorney in Los Angeles with the firm of Kirkland & Ellis, which represents such companies as Boeing, BP, General Motors, Avis Budget Group, Guardian Industries, Union Carbide, Pioneer Electronics, the Tribune Company, and Twentieth Century Fox.
He grew up in Tucson, graduated from Canyon Del Oro High School in 1985, where he was valedictorian, senior class president, captain of the debate team and a four-year varsity letterman in swimming.
In the fall of 1985, Brother Watson pledged Sigma Chi. He served as Beta Phi’s public relations chairman, ritual chairman, and Consul. During his tenure as Consul, Beta Phi received the Peterson Significant Chapter Award, the national fraternity’s highest honor. He was Sigma Chi’s 1989 Southwest Province Balfour Award recipient and one of three finalists for the International Balfour Award.
On campus he was a member of Primus, Sophos and Chain Gang honoraries; was elected to Bobcats, the UA’s senior honorary; and served on the university’s Speakers Board. He was inducted into the Arizona chapters of the Phi Beta Kappa and Phi Kappa Phi honoraries. While a full-time student, he also worked part time as a shoe salesman, a busboy, a sorority hasher, and a university research assistant.
Brother Watson graduated from Northwestern University law school magna cum laude and was selected as a judicial clerk to U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. In 2014, the Legal 500 described him as having “extremely good judgment.” The 2012 Benchmark Litigation Guide recognized him as one of forty two "Future Stars" of California commercial litigation. The California Lawyer and Los Angeles Magazine repeatedly identified him as among the "Rising Stars" of antitrust litigation.
Brother Watson was a volunteer on the State of Arizona’s citizen review board for foster care children; taught as a volunteer for five years on the Consul faculty at Sigma Chi’s undergraduate Leadership Training Workshop; and financially supported various philanthropic causes.
He recounted during his Hall of Honor induction in 2014 that it was through Sigma Chi that he found “some of my most sincere, meaningful, and lasting friendships.”
He leaves his wife , Heidi, and two daughters, Julia and Natalie.
All Honor to His Name.
