WEBSTER, III, Frederick Arthur (Buzz)

The White Mountain Independent, Show Low, Arizona ~ 11/22/2013 Frederick Arthur (Buzz) Webster III, 86, of Pinetop died peacefully Nov. 4, 2013. His wife of 62 years, Joan, was by his side as he passed into God’s care. Buzz was born in Oakland, Calif., to Frederick Arthur Webster Jr. and Harriet Campbell Webster. In 1943, at the height of World War II, at age 17, he enlisted in the U.S. Navy, where he served in the Pacific Theater as an Underwater Demolition Team (UDT) swimmer until the end of the war. After mustering out of the Navy, Buzz attended the University of California at Berkeley, where he became a member of the Alpha Delta Phi fraternity and received a bachelor’s degree in 1950, an MBA in 1951 and a Ph.D. in 1965. In 1965, he began a career in teaching as an assistant professor at the University of British Columbia. He subsequently went on to teach at the University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa and Saginaw Valley State University in Michigan as a full professor, retiring in 1987 to Mesa. He and Joan then built a home in Pinetop, where they have lived full time since 1991. Buzz is survived by his wife, Joan; his daughters: Susan Bergevin (James Michael) of West Branch, Mich., and Ann Smith (Garvin Roland) of Scottsdale; sister Harriet Griffith of Woodland, Calif., and his grandson Matthew Webster Bergevin (Hannah) of Grand Rapids, Mich. In lieu of flowers, memorials may be sent to Hospice Compassus (1789 W. Commerce Drive, Lakeside, AZ 85929). A memorial service is planned for late spring at the Community Presbyterian Church in Pinetop.