Birthday profile

Raymond Watson

Raymond Watson, American businessman (died 2012)

Born
October 4, 1926
Died
October 20, 2012
Zodiac sign
Libra
Birth year
1926

About Raymond Watson

Raymond "Ray" L. Watson was the former president of the Irvine Company, and served as chief planner during the 1960s and 1970s. He was also chairman of Walt Disney Productions from 1983 to 1984, and served on the Disney board from 1972 until March 2004. In 2006, Raymond Watson was awarded The Medal by the University of California, Irvine. You've created and run an outstanding recreation program that used the open space, parks and lakes (William) Pereira visualized and we built. Her death and the Great Depression created a "period of instability" within the Watson family as they became dependent on relatives while his father looked for work, eventually getting a job constructing state park buildings in Oakland, California. After moving to Oakland in 1934, Watson was raised by his grandmother, spending his summers at the state beaches and parks where his father worked as a carpenter.

Biography source: Wikipedia. The profile adds birthday-specific historical context from the Celebs Birthday Today editorial database.

Raymond Watson timeline

  1. After moving to Oakland in 1934, Watson was raised by his grandmother, spending his summers at the state beaches and parks where his father worked as a carpenter.
  2. In 2006, Raymond Watson was awarded The Medal by the University of California, Irvine.

The world when Raymond Watson was born

Raymond Watson was born in 1926. The year snapshot below places that birthday in its cultural and historical setting: the music and films people were following, the headlines shaping public life, and the everyday prices families encountered.

Culture in 1926

  • #1 song"Bye Bye Blackbird"
  • Top movieThe General (Buster Keaton)
  • Best-selling bookThe Sun Also Rises – Ernest Hemingway

Headlines and milestones

  • Major sports momentGertrude Ederle swims the English Channel
  • Top headlineA.A. Milne publishes Winnie-the-Pooh
  • Technology milestoneFirst demonstration of television
  • Defining fadFlagpole sitting
  • Notable inventionPop-up toaster
  • World population2.01 billion

United States snapshot

  • U.S. leaderCalvin Coolidge
  • Sports championSt. Louis Cardinals (World Series)
  • U.S. population117.4M

1926 versus 2026

These figures put everyday life in Raymond Watson's birth year beside the site's latest United States snapshot.

Measure19262026
Gas$0.23$3.45/gal
Average home$6,000$435,000
Average income$3,620$67,500
Movie ticket$0.25$11.95
Postage stamp$0.02$0.73
Population117.4M341 million

Sources and editorial standards

This profile combines a biographical source with structured birthday and historical context. Sources recorded for this profile: Wikipedia, Prabook, WikiTree, Wikidata. See our editorial policy for sourcing, corrections, and review standards.

Read the source biography on Wikipedia. Wikipedia text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License.