Harold C. Watts

Born in Martin, Kentucky, and reared in Hindman, Harold C. Watts attended the University of Kentucky. In fact, he was in the first class of the Kentucky Transportation Scholarship students in 1948.

His engineering career began at the Department of Highways as assistant resident engineer and resident engineer. He then worked for Lovell & Hart Construction Company in Lexington and, when the company reorganized and changed names, he became president of Watts and Call Construction Company.

He was one of the three founders of CHW Construction Company and served as president. That company merged with Central Rock Mineral Company and kept the name Central Rock, and Mr. Watts currently serves as president.

Mr. Watts’ career originally focused on the building of the Interstate Highway System and other major routes and, for many years now, it has focused on the rehabilitation of that System. Throughout his career, he has been involved with stripping coal, the hot-mix asphalt industry, the crushed stone industry, and the development of various real estate properties.

Mr. Watts’ leadership and influence is still strongly felt by transportation associations in Kentucky. He especially takes great pride in the Kentuckians for Better Transportation, which he helped found in 1978; and the Kentucky Association of Highway Contractors, serving as chairman of their Board in 1985. He has spent countless hours of service to both associations. He has served on joint committees with the Department of Highways and the Kentucky Association of Highway Contractors on numerous occasions to rewrite their specifications book.

Mr. Watts also is a University of Kentucky fellow. His other activities include being one of the original founders of the Greenbrier Country Club in Lexington, although he has since given up golf to pursue other interests, especially spending more time with his grandchildren. He also has served on the board of the Aldersgate United Methodist Church in Lexington.

He recently moved from Lexington to Hindman where he is renovating a house on some property he purchased. He has always been proud of his mountain heritage and is glad to be back home and near his mother, Mrs. Maude Smith. Mr. Watts and his late wife, Peggy Jean Hagins Watts, have three sons, Robert, Mike, and Greg, and four grandchildren.