Fred S. Webster

His father owned a car dealership in Paris that was destroyed in the 1916 Paris fires. Fred’s father, also a cotton exporter, took the family to New York, London, England and New Orleans, Louisiana before arriving in Austin, Texas when Fred was 11 years old.

In his teen years he started a license plate collection by writing to Chambers of Commerce, foreign embassies, governors, mayors and movie stars, asking for discarded plates. He collected almost 1200 plates from all over the world and they were exhibited at the Smithsonian in the late 1930’s and at the Austin Children’s Museum in 1994.

The death of his father in 1936 changed his life so that he dropped out of The University of Texas. He served in the U.S. Army and later returned to UT to earn a B.A. degree and M.A. degree in creative writing.

He met Ada Marie Sternenberg at UT and they married in 1951. They recently celebrated their 60th wedding anniversary.

His working career was spent with the U.S. Department of Agriculture in Austin. He took an early retirement to pursue birdwatching activities that he started after viewing a flock of painted buntings on the University campus April 21, 1952. He edited the South Texas Region column for National Audubon’s “American Birds” for 25 years. He taught a class in birdwatching through The UT Informal Classes for 30 years where he made many friends and gave his many students the lifelong gift of a greater knowledge and awareness of birds and the natural world.

In 1964 he and Marie visited Rancho del Cielo in northeastern Mexico and became regular visitors to this hemisphere’s northernmost tropical cloud forest. When the ranch passed into the hands of the Gorgas Science Foundation at Texas Southmost College in Brownsville to be utilized as a biological research station, Fred and Marie organized and lead ecotours to the cloud forest to raise funds for the upkeep of the project. After the entire region was declared a biosphere reserve (El Cielo), the people at Gorgas Science Foundation requested that the Websters write a history of Rancho del Cielo, to be sponsored by Gorgas and published by The University of Texas Press. “The Road to El Cielo” was published in 2002. Fred published five books after that, all after the age of 85. Some were mystery novels (surprising his friends with their racy/steamy nature), another described his and Marie’s birdwatching adventures and another tells of his experiences in Okinawa at the end of World War II. Soon to be published is a book about the Civil War created from his grandfather’s hand- written journal describing experiences while serving as a courier.

Fred is preceded in death by parents, Fred S. Webster Sr. and Eula Smith Webster and sister Dr. Caroline Webster Rowe. He is survived by wife, Ada Marie Webster; brother-in-law, Fred W. Sternenberg Jr. (Janet); nephews, Edward Barry Rowe, Fred W. Sternenberg III (Therese) and Thomas K Sternenberg (Rebecca); nieces, Sherry S. Hand (Gary), Kathleen A. Sternenberg (David) and Mary Clare Hubbell (Dennis) as well as extended family members.

Those who knew Fred remember his love of chicken fried steak and desserts. His unique sense of humor, dubbed “Fred humor” was legendary in his birdwatching classes.

Visitation will be held Tuesday, July 19, 2011 from 6:00 to 8:00 p.m. at Weed-Corley-Fish Funeral Home on North Lamar. Services are Wednesday at 10:00 a.m. in the Weed-Corley-Fish Chapel. Interment will follow at Austin Memorial Park Cemetery.

Contributions in Fred’s memory can be made to Gorgas Science Foundation, P.O. Box 5688, Brownsville, TX 78520 or Travis Audubon Society, 3710 Cedar St, Box 5, Austin, TX 78705.