CPA Loses Colleague and Founder of Flemming Institute

CPA’s dear friend and colleague Wes Watkins died on June 4, 2001 of complications after an operation for lung cancer. This is a sad time, but we are grateful for having known Wes and for his life of dedication to making this world a better place.

Wes, whom many CPA friends, family and partners met, was an integral part of CPA and founder of the Flemming Fellows Leadership Institute. CPA’s Board Chair and longtime President Linda Tarr-Whelan stated, “Wes was a larger-than-life figure with a thick Mississippi accent, a magnetic personality and a gift for telling stories.”

The Flemming Institute is CPA’s flagship leadership program that Wes conceived, nurtured and loved. He was immensely proud of the Fellows and their contributions to progressive politics. Wes and CPA had many new great plans for the Institute. We will do our best to carry on his important work and to live up to the high standards he set.

Beyond Flemming, Wes was a colleague who mentored and cared for all of us. We could count on him for sound advice, helpful council and caring support. We miss him more than we can say.

Wes specialized in civil rights and civil liberties issues in a career that spanned almost 40 years. He was a former director of the American Civil Liberties Union of the National Capital Area, a regional manager of Common Cause and a management consultant to various nonprofit organizations.

During the Kennedy and Johnson administrations, he was a Justice Department lawyer and tried cases throughout the South. His cases included winning the right for African-American leaders to speak to on-campus gatherings at previously all-white universities, the seating of a biracial Mississippi delegation at the 1968 Democratic National Convention, and removal of various barriers and impediments to voting.