Founding families: the Websters

The first Webster to attend Selwyn House was L. Stuart Webster, of the Class of 1922, closely followed by his three brothers: R. Howard Webster ’24, Richard C. Webster ’25 and Eric T. Webster ’29.

Stuart’s son Philip L. Webster ’61 has had a long and close relationship with Selwyn House, from the days he attended the school at its former location on Redpath Street, to his years as a key member of the board of directors.

After leaving Selwyn House at the end of Grade 9 (at that time, the school had not yet expanded its program to include Grades 10 and 11), Philip finished high school at LCC, spent a year in Switzerland at l’Université de Neuchatel, then attended Princeton for his BA, and Harvard for a Master’s Degree in Architecture.

Philip returned to Canada in 1972 and founded a design and construction firm in the Eastern Townships, moving to Montreal in 1977, where he worked in a family investment business, then taught design at McGill School of Architecture and worked for Anderson Architects.

Today, Philip is President of the Imperial Windsor Group, a family investment company, and serves as a trustee of the R. Howard Webster Foundation, The Zeller Family Foundation and the Red and White Foundation. He is on the board of directors of Western Financial Group in Alberta, and Erdene Gold Inc. in Halifax, both TSX companies.

As chairman of the property committee on the Selwyn House board of directors, Philip personally saw the school through some of its most profound physical changes, donating a new furnace and heating system when the school moved from Redpath Street to Cote St. Antoine in 1961, and directing the renovation of the Lucas Building in the 1980s and the acquisition of the Macaulay Building in 1985. He is still a member of the Lucas Foundation.

As a member of the last class to graduate from Redpath, Philip looks back fondly on that smaller, cozier “rabbit’s warren” of a school nestled among the trees at the end of peaceful, cobbled street.

“It was quite fun,” he recalls. “We had a rink in the front yard where we’d play ball hockey at every opportunity.”

With fewer than 300 students, the smaller enrolment made for closer relationships at Redpath. “You knew a lot of the students in the grades above and below you,” Philip says. “In Grade 5, I played soccer at both the intermediate and senior levels.”

“I remember the teachers very fondly,” he says. “Mr. Speirs was wonderfully kind and supportive. He was authoritarian—a disciplinarian—but there was a wonderful, kind side to him that everyone loved.”

Edgar Moodey was another colourful figure who made an indelible stamp on the memories of his students. “He had a tough exterior,” Philip says, but if you were a good student who just happened to get into minor trouble, “he’d pretend to get annoyed” with a twinkle in his eye.

Philip was editor of the school yearbook, Speirs House officer, vice-president of the debating society and a versatile athlete, winning the Jock Barclay Memorial Trophy. He also won the MacKenzie Cup for Scouting, which was a big part of the school in those days. One day each week scouts would wear their uniforms throughout the school day.

Philip also had the distinction of being in the last class to graduate before the school curriculum was extended beyond Grade 9. “Personally, I’m glad we ended at Grade 9,” Philip says. He feels that leaving his cozy nest to complete high school at LCC was an easier transition than going straight into university. “I’m glad I wasn’t in the next class after me,” he says, “with three years as top dog at Selwyn House.”

In 1985, when the school purchased St. Andrew’s church, which became the Macaulay Building, Philip remembers thinking to himself, “This will probably be the first and last time I buy a church.”

The purchase “worked out very well,” Philip says in retrospect. “It made a big addition to the school.”

It was just one instance in which members of the Webster families made a big addition to the school in many ways.

Though not related to Philip, other Websters who have attended Selwyn House include brothers Patrick J. Webster ’79 and D.G. Webster ’88, and Andrew K. Webster ’82.

Selwyn House Old Boys may remember a different Andrew Webster, who taught at Selwyn House before joining the faculty of the University of Western Australia in Perth.

Another set of Webster brothers from a different branch of the family are: Lorne Campbell Webster ’78, who lives in Charlottetown and produces for the CBC, Adam W. Webster ’88, who graduated from Amherst and owns an airplane leasing company in Montreal, and L.H. (Howie) Webster ’90.

Philip’s son Stuart F. Webster has continued the family tradition, graduating from Selwyn House in 1961 before going to UCC, Princeton and the Inchbald School of Garden Design in London. He now lives in Montreal with his wife, Claire, and their two daughters Julia (5) and Siena (3). He owns and manages, with Claire's assistance, Stuart Webster Design and Daccord Webster Landscaping, firms specializing in garden design and construction.