A Fortunate Obligation Q&A with Billy Webster ’79, Chair, Leading Lives of Consequence Campaign

By Julie Jackson
March 5, 2024

“It is my time to do something to help the university. It is an obligation that I feel fortunate to inherit.”- Billy Webster ’79

Billy Webster ’79 has worn many hats at Washington and Lee throughout the years: student, alumnus, parent, supporter, Trustee and volunteer, to name a few. The stalwart graduate is now taking on, arguably, his most significant role to date — chair of Leading Lives of Consequence, the university’s comprehensive capital campaign. We asked Webster why he felt compelled to lead the charge.

Why did you decide to accept the position of Chair of the Leading Lives of Consequence Campaign?

When I was a freshman at W&L, I would go every Sunday around lunchtime to have an iced tea with Dean Frank Gilliam. He was an old friend of my family’s and my great-grandmother — his former next-door neighbor in Lynchburg — insisted that I spend as much time as I could with “Dear ole Frank,” as she called him.

On my final visit to see Dean Gilliam just before Christmas break, he escorted me to the front door in his wheelchair. He rose, holding the railing by the door and looked out across his magnificent boxwoods to the statue of George Washington atop the Colonnade. He said to me, “One day, son, the university will call on you to help her. That will be your obligation.” I never saw Dean Gilliam again as he passed away just after the turn of the calendar. Washington and Lee has given much to me and my family. As Dean Gilliam predicted, it is my time to do something to help the university. It is an obligation that I feel fortunate to inherit.

In what ways did W&L teach you to lead a life of consequence?

What Washington and Lee taught me was the primacy of honor, integrity and civility. To the extent those enduring attributes lead any of us to a ‘life of consequence,’ I believe — and I would guess that my fellow alumni believe — that these values are the foundation for success as each of us define it.

Why is it important for alumni, parents and the entire W&L community to participate in the campaign?

The word “university” comes from medieval Latin, meaning “the whole or the aggregate.” For a university to be successful — indeed, for a capital campaign to be successful — it takes the commitment and participation of all aspects of that “whole” — alumni, parents, faculty, administration and the entire W&L community.

Why do you think this is a crucial time for W&L to launch a capital campaign?

A friend of the university passed along to me a speech that Dr. Sidney Coulling delivered in 1973. When I think about the need for a capital campaign, some of his words resonate: “Washington and Lee, like the rest of the world, has changed. The helpful response to this fact, however, is not to lament for times past, but a willingness to understand the changes that have taken place and to make whatever additional changes may be desirable for the future.”

The Board’s strategic plan sets out those bold initiatives that focus on things that matter: the student experience, the quality of our academic and co-curricular programs, and the spaces in which those programs occur. The rest of the world is moving along and changing, as Dr. Coulling stated.

We cannot rest on our past accomplishments. Each generation of W&L alumni has an opportunity — an obligation, as Dean Gilliam characterized it — to ensure that subsequent generations of students have access to the experiences at W&L that prepare them to be leaders in their personal and professional lives… to lead lives of consequence.

Read more about the Leading Lives of Consequence campaign.