R.I.P. Donald Watson (1910-2005)
by Michael Graham Richard, Ottawa, Canada 
on 11.18.05
As living beings, what we eat is of the utmost importance to ourselves, but as part of the great ecosystem that is the Earth, it is also very important to nature and it counts for a great portion of our ecological footprint. For these reasons and more, we want to pay a small tribute to the late Donald Watson. He founded The Vegan Society in 1944 (with Elsie Shrigley) and invented the word "vegan". Random thought read somewhere else online: "He outlived Robert Atkins." ::The Vegan Society, ::So You're an Environmentalist; Why Are You Still Eating Meat?, ::Veganism at Wikipedia, via ::Vegan Porn (no actual porno, don't worry - and don't be disappointed)
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If you would like to read more about him check out:
www.veg.ca/living/donald-watson.html
Some highlights:
"Vegan" was coined in 1944, as a more concise word to replace "non-dairy vegetarian." Some people had suggested bizarre sounding words like "dairyban, vitan, benevore, sanivore, and beaumangeur"
Watson credits diet for his longevity. He said in an interview last year: "My father died of a coronary at sixty-three. Neither his father nor grandfather reached seventy despite the fact that, as farmers, they had plenty of fresh air, exercise, and organic foods. On my mother's side, all died around the age of seventy.
Early in life I decided my first rule of health must be to try to keep poisons out of my body, and this seems to have paid off. Today we have the new hazard of hundreds of chemicals added to manufactured foods, so we must read the small print if we want to keep clear of them."
Donald Watson outlived all his critics despite a "weak heart" and proved that his solution for better health for people, animals and the environment was practical and simple.
See Interview with Donald Watson
PS
That photo of Donald Watson reading the very first copy of Vegan News (later to become 'The Vegan') seems to be popping up everywhere.
Just for the record it is a picture by Joseph Connolly editor of Veg News who interviewed Donald for the Summer edition to celebrate World Vegan Day.