Just a Phone Call Away

It's hard to imagine a time without telephones, as phones are an aspect of modern life that most people couldn't live without. But nearly 150 years ago, people lived full lives without being bothered by text message emojis and spam calls. A time when communication looked almost alien to what it is today. The world was a lot more siloed, where information was passed through things like the telegraph, newspapers, and good old letter writing. You knew your neighbors and checked on one another, and many conversations spread by word of mouth. Then, almost overnight, well, more like over the course of a few moments, the future of communication changed forever.

In the late morning hours of March 7, 1876, in an old, nondescript boarding house on Exeter Place in Boston, Massachusetts, Thomas A. Watson entered a small room adjacent to his employer and waited. When it was time, Watson picked up the transmitter. A voice was heard through the line. "Mr. Watson, come here. I want to see you." Watson replied: “Mr. Bell, do you understand what I say?” With that brief exchange, Alexander Graham Bell and Thomas A. Watson secured their place in history with the first phone call... and the first of thousands of calls between an "executive" and their assistant.

Thomas A. Watson was born on January 18, 1854, in Salem, Massachusetts. Adept in many different trades, Watson worked as a bookkeeper, inventor, and carpenter before meeting Bell, who had been working as a professor at Boston University. Both men were architects at heart, constantly innovating and creating. Watson was quickly hired as Alexander's assistant and supported Bell throughout the invention of the telephone. They traveled worldwide to demonstrate the device in several spectacular and widely reported exhibitions. A year after the first call, Bell Telephone Company was formed. Watson received a share in the business and later resigned from his assistant role and became its head of research and development. On January 25, 1915, Watson, Alexander Graham Bell, President Woodrow Wilson, and mayors from San Francisco and New York City all participated in a four-way call that served as the first transcontinental telephone call.

An inventor and American Industrialist in his own right, Watson created the first ringer for the telephone, which was manufactured for nearly 60 years. With his royalties, he became a farmer and geologist. He founded the Fore River Ship and Engine Building Company, which built naval destroyers during World War I, becoming one of the largest shipyards in America. It was later purchased by Bethlehem Steel Corporation, which led the efforts in building steel machines and warships during World War II. Dying in 1934, Watson was buried on a hill above his former shipyard.

Watson may not have been a career administrative professional, but during his tenure as an assistant, his ideas, hands-on skills, and support were key to the overall success of one of the most prolific and tendentious figures in the modern era. The sentiment that admins are important should not be lost on those who read this story. After all, we can't dispute the fact that the first words spoken during the first-ever phone call were to an assistant letting them know they were needed.