The Story of Peter and Justin: Remembering Peter O. Watts, JD, LLM

Posted on July 1, 2025 by Justin B. Moore

My friend Peter O. Watts, JD, LLM, who was an influential attorney in Portland, Oregon, dedicated partner, and contributor to JPHMP Direct, recently passed away on June 12^th, 2025. As a tribute to our time on earth together, and a way to begin to heal, I would like to tell you the story of Peter and me.

In the summer of 1996, I arrived at the University of Mississippi (aka, Ole Miss) in Oxford to attend graduate school. I moved to town with few possessions and no friends or even contacts other than the graduate program director who recruited me. I quickly made a friend in the weight room, who introduced me to his friends at a local fraternity house. It was that inauspicious start that begins the story of two friends, Peter and Justin.

Peter was a sophomore student and a member of the fraternity, part of a ragtag group of guys all looking for their place in the world. By the standards of a men’s fraternity in Mississippi in 1996, it was an eclectic group. The Beta Beta Chapter of Beta Theta Pi (or the Beta House for short) was comprised of men of varying races, ethnicities, backgrounds, and ideologies. It was for this reason, I decided to join (or pledge) the fraternity as a graduate student in late summer of 1996, something unheard of at the time. Once I did the math, I could join the fraternity and eat at the Beta House for cheaper than it was costing me to eat at the time on my own, and I might make some friends in the process. One of those friends was Peter, who despite our age difference and vastly different home states (Peter from Oregon, me from Texas), became a close colleague almost immediately. We bonded over our intellectual curiosity, political ideologies, and love of smoked salmon (which his parents would send in their regular care packages to remind him of home). I would supply the crackers and cream cheese and Peter would supply the salmon, and we’d share a veritable feast. Most of all, we’d share stories and perspectives about the world, learning from one another like one does as a young person.

Peter Watts, Scott Woodford, and Justin Moore

Eventually, I would meet my first wife at Ole Miss, graduate, move to Austin, Texas, to get my doctorate, and return to Oxford in 1999 to marry the local woman I had met. Peter served as a groomsman in my wedding and remained a close friend despite moving back to Oregon to attend law school after graduation. We stayed in regular contact, despite neither of us having the money to travel and meet up. He was a constant source of companionship through the stress of graduate school, my postdoctoral fellowship, and my first faculty positions. He was always there to provide legal guidance over the years, helping me manage predatory landlords, consulting contracts, and eventually my separation and divorce. He was there for me at my 40^th birthday trip to Los Vegas, and the first person I called in 2015 when I decided to propose to my girlfriend (now wife). As our careers took off, Peter was the friend I could call to learn of his most recent accomplishments or accolades and to share mine, as both of us had a robust sense of self and pride in one-another. He was there in 2016 when I married the love of my life, making the round trip from Portland to Asheville (NC) in 48 hours to share the moment with us and bring us bottles of Willamette Valley wine. My wife and I visited Peter in Oregon in 2017, but he and I weren’t able to see each other again until summer of 2022 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Despite the long time between visits, we were in regular contact, sharing long conversations about the world and the things that drove our passion, such as health equity, helping those less fortunate than us, and Ole Miss/Oregon/Texas football. In 2022, Peter and I met up at an alumni event in Oxford with other alumni of the Beta House, played golf, shared some excellent meals, and drank copious amounts of whiskey. The last time I would see him would be October 2023 when I flew to Portland for a conference. He and his partner Ami put me up at their house in Portland, where we again would share great food, great wine, flowing conversations, and copious amounts of bourbon. We shared a long walk with a friend of theirs before heading to the airport, still engaged in deep conversation about the state of the world and making plans to improve it. I didn’t know it at the time, but it would be the last time I would see him alive.

I last spoke to Peter on May 5^th, 2025. We exchanged a couple of brief emails on June 8^th and 9^th, but I would never speak with him again. In the early hours of June 13^th, I would learn through a friend of Peter’s that he had passed away on June 12^th shortly after returning from a walk. He was 48 years old.

And that’s how the story of Peter and Justin ends. No goodbyes, no warning, no way to prepare. The last words I typed to him before heading to bed on May 5^th were “It’s getting late on the East Coast. I’ll catch you another time. It was great to catch up!” I just wish it ended with “I love you, Brother.”

Peter was a brother to me. He was a trusted advisor, a loyal friend, and one of my biggest supporters, even when he disagreed with me. I will miss our long, rambling conversations, his sharp wit and acerbic sense of humor. He will be missed more than he could have ever known. May he rest in peace.

About the Author

Justin B. Moore: Justin B. Moore, PhD, MS, FACSM, is a Professor and Vice Chair in the Department of Implementation Science in the Division of Public Health Sciences at the Wake Forest University School of Medicine. He holds joint appointments in the departments of Family & Community Medicine and Epidemiology & Prevention. Dr. Moore also serves as the Director of Dissemination, Implementation, and Continuous Quality Improvement within the Clinical and Translational Science Institute at Wake Forest University. He conducts community-engaged research focused on the dissemination and implementation of evidence-based strategies for the promotion of healthy behaviors in underserved populations. He also conducts epidemiological research examining the determinants of health behaviors and related comorbidities across the lifespan. He serves as the Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Public Health Management & Practice.