
                         THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
                 Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: WEDNESDAY, June 1, 1994                    TAG: 9406010473 
SECTION: LOCAL                     PAGE: D3    EDITION: FINAL  
SOURCE: BY BILL REED, STAFF WRITER 
DATELINE: 940601                                 LENGTH: VIRGINIA BEACH

LOTTO JACKPOT WON BY FATHER OF EX-BEACH OFFICIAL

{LEAD} Fat retirement checks apparently run in the family.

Aubrey V. Watts Sr., father of former Virginia Beach City Manager Aubrey V. Watts Jr., hit the $3.6 million state Lotto jackpot May 18 and on Tuesday collected the first of 20 after-tax annual payments of $122,381 at lottery headquarters in Richmond.

{REST} Aubrey Jr. scored big three years ago when he stepped down as Virginia Beach city manager with a $50,000-a-year retirement package, then glided on his golden parachute into a job as city manager of Greenville, S.C., at an annual salary of $92,500 a year.

The elder Watts, a retired agronomist at the Hampton Roads (formerly Virginia Tech) Experiment Station on Diamond Springs Road, declined to talk with the media Tuesday.

However, he told lottery officials he intended to share his windfall with his family, Aubrey Jr. included.

Young Watts, one of two children, grew up on a farm in the Bayside section of Virginia Beach and began working for the city of Virginia Beach in 1963 as deputy city treasurer after graduating from Virginia Tech.

He worked his way up to the job of city manager in 1987 and was making $100,000 a year in 1991 when he decided to take advantage of an early retirement program that was part of an ongoing cost and man-power reduction strategy.

{KEYWORDS} LOTTERIES VIRGINIA WINNERS

by CNB