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Burl Stevens Watson Sr. (7 November 1893 – 16 August 1975) was the president and CEO ofCities Service Company during parts of the 1950s and 1960s. He became president in 1954 and was chairman of the board and CEO beginning in 1962, taking the place ofW. Alton Jones, who died in the crash ofAmerican Airlines Flight 1. Watson was extremely influential as the leader of one of the largest oil companies in the United States.[citation needed] He was quoted often in newspaper and magazine publications on his views on the status of the petroleum industry and served as a national leader of theAmerican Red Cross andSalvation Army. Watson served for many years as the director of theAmerican Petroleum Institute.
Born in the small town ofLincoln, Alabama, to farmer Byron Alexander Stephens Watson, he was the first graduate of Lincoln High School and went on to theUniversity of Alabama, where he majored in electrical engineering. There is a scholarship in his name at Alabama to this day due to a donation he made to the university, which was later enhanced by Cities Service Company. He was awarded an honorary Doctorate of Science from the University of Alabama in 1957.
After serving in the Army Engineer Corps duringWorld War I, he rose through the ranks of the large corporation, eventually moving toNew York City and working at the corporate office.
He married Emitom Burns, daughter of state senator and agricultural innovator Robert Burns. They had two children, including Burl Stevens Watson Jr. who went on to become director of corporate finance of Cities Service Company. Burl Sr. had an oil tanker named after him, theBurl S. Watson, which was built at the Sörviksvarvet A/B shipyard atUddevalla, Sweden, being released for duty in 1961. He died in 1975 inPort Washington, New York, at the age of 81.