John S. Watson Institute for Public Policy John S. Watson Institute for Public Policy The John S. Watson Institute for Public Policy is an American non-partisan research institute on public policy located at Thomas Edison State College in Trenton, New Jersey. The Institute is named after New Jersey Assemblyman John S. Watson, the first African American to serve as the state's Chairman of the Assembly Appropriations Committee. Thomas Edison State College established the institute in response to the expressed needs of decision-makers across New Jersey to have a resource for researching public policy. The approach of the institute is to apply the resources of higher education to
Burl S. Watson industry and served as a national leader of the American Red Cross and Salvation Army. Watson served for many years as the director of the American Petroleum Institute. Born in the small town of Lincoln, Alabama to farmer Byron Alexander Stephens Watson, he was the first graduate of Lincoln High School and went on to the University 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