Born in
Ada, Oklahoma on 14 April 1927, his parents were Irena Lois Heard and Grady Webster, a newspaper publisher. His family moved to
Austin, Texas during his childhood, and established a home amongst woodland. He worked within his father's business, which began an interest in world affairs, and gained an interest in plants during high school. Webster served as an ensign in the navy whilst he was enrolled at
Stanford University, and completed a bachelor's degree in botany at the
University of Texas in 1949. He received a
PhD while attending the
University of Michigan under Rogers McVaugh and undertook a post doctoral fellowship at
Harvard University that was provided by the
National Science Foundation. At Harvard he worked with I. W. Bailey and was married to
Barbara Anne Donahue, a Ph.D. studying plant morphology, in 1956. Webster was appointed at the
University of California, Davis, as a professor in the department of botany and the director of the
arboretum. The Grady L. Webster Award of the
American Society of Plant Taxonomists (ASPT) and
Botanical Society of America, named for their former president, is given annually and alternately to publications in either plant systematics or structural biology. During his lifetime he was awarded the Asa Gray and Merit awards of these societies. He received fellowships from
Guggenheim,
Smithsonian, and the
National Science Foundation. ==References==