The C.E. “Bud” Webster and Lucille M. Webster Accounting Scholarship

C.E. “Bud” Webster of Meeteetse and Lucille (Moncur) Webster of Worland met at the University of Wyoming as freshmen where they both majored in accounting and graduated together in 1935. Bud and Lucille were good friends and occasionally dated in college. Seven years after meeting, they were married. In Bud’s career as a car dealer which spanned over 68 years and encompassed thousands of car deals, Bud often said getting Lucille to marry him was the best deal he ever made.

After graduation in 1935, times were extremely tough and Bud ended up working for an oil company in Los Angeles. Lucille returned to Worland to teach Commercial Arts at Worland High School before taking a job in the Department of Interior in Washington, DC. A job offer to Bud from the Wyoming State Board of Equalization to be an auditor for the brand new Sales Tax Division brought him back home. Shortly after, Bud and his brother had an opportunity to acquire the Chevrolet Dealership in Cody, Wyoming in 1937 where Bud would remain Cody’s Chevrolet and General Motors Dealer until his death. Along the way he also acquired Chevrolet Dealerships in Powell and Utah. At his death in 2005, he was in his 68th year as owner-operator of Webster Motors. Bud’s history in the car business is pretty well known. He received about every honor any car dealer ever had, including president of the Wyoming Dealers Association and Wyoming’s representative for six years on the National Automobile Dealers Association. Bud was named as Wyoming Time Life Dealer of the Year. In addition to the automobile business, in 1943, Bud and Lucille purchased the Coca-Cola Bottling Co. of Thermopolis. The Coca-Cola franchise covered all of Fremont County and the four Big Horn Basin counties.

Lucille’s career, outside the home, focused on volunteerism in many organizations including the Cody School Board, where she served multiple terms, the Wyoming State Youth Council, and the Girl Scouts. She applied her accounting skills working alongside Bud in the Coca Cola business.

The University of Wyoming holds a special place in the family. Bud and Lucille had three children, all alumni of the University of Wyoming: Maggie, Ed and Bill. Bud was recognized as the Distinguished Alumnus for the College of Commerce and Industry in 1971 (currently, the College of Business), the Businessman of the Year in 1987, and in 2002, the Distinguished Alumni Award from the UW Alumni Association. The Webster Family was recognized by the university as the 2001 University of Wyoming Family of the Year.