Eugene P. Watson

Eugene Payne Watson (June 29, 1911 – February 29, 1964) was from 1940 until his death the head librarian and professor of library science at Northwestern State University in his native Natchitoches, Louisiana. He fought to gain greater academic recognition of librarians. In 1950, Watson founded Alpha Beta Alpha, the first coeducational undergraduate library science fraternity in the United States. The fraternity held its first biennial convention on the NSU campus in 1952. At the time of Watson's death, the fraternity had twenty-nine chapters nationally.