Bill Coggins  MSW '55

In November 1967, just two years after the Watts riots wracked Los Angeles, Bill Coggins set up shop in a one-room prefabricated building on East 103rd Street.  His mission: to help Kaiser Permanente of Southern California bring badly needed counseling and educational programs to the Watts community. It was a daunting assignment, remembers Coggins, MSW '55.            "It's fair to say I was met with skepticism, even hostility. Kaiser didn't know much about Watts; neither did I -- I had just returned from a year in London as a Fulbright Fellow," said Coggins, a Manhattan native. "I was representing a major white organization unknown to the community -- an organization that for its part was very concerned about its reputation and image."            Today, more than 30 years later, Coggins has announced he is retiring as director of Kaiser Permanente's Watts Counseling and Learning Center, a modern, 9,500 square-foot facility with a $1.5 million budget that serves more than 1,500 residents -- mostly free of charge -- each year.            "Thirty years ago, I don't think any of us dreamed the center would be as successful as it is," Jim Vohs, chairman emeritus of the Kaiser Foundation Health Plan, said last September at a gala luncheon celebrating the center's 30th anniversary and honoring Coggins for his enormous contributions to the community.            "Bill Coggins is one of the most outstanding, the most impressive people I have ever met," Vohs continued. "He has put the lives of others far ahead of his own, sacrificing his own career and promotions to help young children."           A graduate of the City College of New York, Coggins worked for the old New York City Department of Welfare before he was drafted during the Korean War. Military service clarified his career goals, and he came to UCLA for his master's of social welfare, working in a variety of jobs until Kaiser came calling in November 1966.            While Coggins -- immortalized on the Watts Promenade of Prominence in Ted Watkins Park, and named Alumnus of the Year by the UCLA Social Welfare Alumni Association -- received accolades from a number of state, county and city officials at the luncheon, it was the emotional tribute paid by a now-grown center client that best communicated the lasting impact he has had on the community.           It was Bill Coggins, the client said, who got the second opinion that saved her right arm from being amputated, who helped her mother stop drinking, who helped her dyslexic brother enroll in a private school and get the help he needed to succeed.           "If there is ever a day when you question your work, think of me and my family," she said.            With a staff that includes educational therapists, psychiatric social workers, social worker associates, a clinical psychologist,  a clinical art therapist and support staff, the Watts center offers preschool and after school classes; individual, family, marital, parent-child and group counseling; educational therapy, SAT preparation, a summer day camp, and pre-employment training for high school students.            MSW students from UCLA and other schools have served in field placements at the center since 1982.           "My own experience at UCLA was great," Coggins said. "I worked with top-notch people in my field placements, and the MSW has really helped me earn a living. It's a very useful degree."

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