Webster was born in Missouri near Saint Louis and originally planned to attend a college or university in that region. However, his parents, believing that he should broaden his worldview during his college years, encouraged him to look farther afield for his undergraduate education. "I only applied to Amherst," Webster said. "I took a train there without ever having seen the college and really lucked out."
This statement seems to be the sentiment that defined his times at the College. Webster fell in love with the school. "Amherst was everything I hoped it would be," he said.
In 1941, Webster's freshman year, the U.S. was thrown into World War II. Webster entered the Navy V12 reservists and for two semesters was sent to Williams College with many other Amherst men. He spent a total of three and a half years in the Navy as a lieutenant during the war.
In his spare time, Webster involved himself in a wide range of activities, from debate, to soccer, to working for The Amherst Student. During his stint in the Navy, he founded the first V12 newspaper, the Williams Blinker, which, ironically, was staffed primarily by Amherst students. After the war, when Webster returned for his final semester at the College, he was asked by the president and the dean of the College to revamp The Amherst Student, which had been suspended during the war. He and his classmates, many of them now prominent journalists or businessmen, gladly accepted. Webster "utilized a number of [his] Williams Blinker expatriates including Sumner Powell-he later became a Pulitzer Prize winner-and Ed Ney, ambassador to Canada."
During his time at the College, Webster also excelled academically. He was elected to the Sphinx Junior Honor Society and to the Scarab Senior Honor Society. He recalls enjoying his history and political science classes, as well as an English class on Shakespeare. His experiences show the importance of branching out at the College and making great use of what Webster remembers as "the availability of the faculty."
After his last semester at the College, following his service in the Navy, Webster pursued his dream of becoming a lawyer at Washington University in St. Louis. But war would interrupt again in 1950 when conflict broke out in Korea. Webster was recalled to active duty. "I served as Executive Officer of a tanker in the Far East for two years and then rejoined my firm in St. Louis in 1952."
In the following years, Webster's legal career took a turn into the public sector. President Eisenhower appointed Webster U.S. Attorney for eastern Missouri in 1960. He returned to private practice when Kennedy was elected president, but was appointed judge of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Missouri. In 1973 Webster rose again to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit.
Webster's career took a new path in 1978 when President Carter once more asked him to become director of the FBI. In 1987, President Reagan asked him to change jobs and become director of the CIA. To date, Webster is the only American to serve as the director of both the FBI and the CIA. In 1991 Webster returned to private life and law. For the last 16 years he has been employed at the firm of Milbank, Tweed, Hadley and McCloy LLP.
Webster said that in the course of his work he was "basically a man of the law." He enjoyed the experiences in the intelligence community. "Transforming myself into [an] intelligence officer was really an extension of that basic and fundamental interest in my life," he said.
Throughout his career, Webster has been inspired by one of his role models, John J. McCloy '16, in whose firm he now works. McCloy, like Webster, served in various prominent roles including Assistant Secretary of War, High Commissioner of Germany and in various other capacities in the corporate world. In McCloy's words, there is a place in public service for "the private man in public life." Webster, whose own life exemplifies this dedication to service and conscience, takes these words to heart.
As well as being a private lawyer, Webster is now Chairman of the Homeland Security Advisory Council, which advises Secretary Chertoff and the Department of Homeland Security. In this role, Webster "draws on distinguished men and women with rich experiences in the private and public sector to help Secretary Chertoff."
In his time here at the College, Webster made great use of the its resources and of its student body. In the path of the College's dedication to service, Webster said, "Amherst expanded my way of looking at the world and imbued me with the sense that since much had been given to me, much was expected ... All of us can help fulfill the Amherst pledge: 'Terras Irradient.'"