Ronnie Erwin Watson

Ronnie "GP" Erwin Watson, born in Beaumont TX, January 21st 1938, passed away peacefully, yet unexpected, on Thursday June 12th, 2025.

He grew up in Beaumont TX where he attended South Park High School (Class of 1956) and Lamar University (Class of 1960) where he received a degree in Civil Engineering.

He also met the love of his life, Gretchen Burner, while attending Lamar. They met on a blind date, dated immediately, and were happily married for almost 64 years.

They moved a few times early in their marriage, then settled in North Little Rock, AR, where they raised 2 children, Alice and Warren.

Ronnie served as engineer for the Federal Highway Administration for 37 years. Post retirement, he worked on the River Rail Streetcar Project, now the Metro Streetcar. In 1998, he was awarded the Arkansas Traveler Ambassador of Goodwill. He also served on the Lakewood POA board for over 20 years. During his time on the board, he consulted on the dam projects that originally created Lakewood, one of the beautiful neighborhoods of NLR.

In 2006, Ronnie and Gretchen moved from LR to Dallas, TX to be near their daughter and only grandson. A year later, they followed them to Denver, CO.

In 2008, they welcomed a second grandson and started to really enjoy the life of grandparenting. Ronnie "GP" had an extremely special connection with his younger grandson, Spencer. He was able to share two of his lifelong passions with Spencer, fishing and golf. Spencer continues to excel at both, which brought his "GP" extreme pride.

Ronnie was preceded in death by his father, James Clinton "Jack" Watson, who passed away when he was 3 years old, his mother, Thelma Opal Horner, and stepfather, James William "JW" Brandon and his son, Warren Keith Watson.

He is survived by his wife, Gretchen Burner Watson, daughter, Alice Rhea Watson, sister, Pamela Rhea Melton, his sister's children, Laura, Brian, Jennifer, Carolyn and Lane Melton and his grandsons, Brandon Wrenn Gosch and Spencer William Gosch.

In lieu of flowers, the family requests that donations be made to Spencer's school. It is a small school in the middle of Denver that has been a perfect fit for Spencer and many other children. Https://www.coloradogives.org/acceleratedschools

GP always looked forward to picking Spencer up from school, hearing about Spencer's day and treating him to a snack on the way home. As GG has always said.."Ronnie is one of the good guys".

We will love and miss you the rest of our lives.