Kingston Native Honored with Congressional Tribute

Kingston native Sanford Harvey Webster has been honored with a Congressional tribute, entered into the Congressional Record on May 26, 2012. 

The Congress honored Webster, a 1939 graduate of West Point, for his “extraordinary military service to our nation” and for “nearly a century of accomplishment.” Among his achievements was the Army’s first program developing drones for battlefield surveillance, during the 1950’s.

The tribute notes that Colonel Webster’s “contributions to our nation’s expertise at reconnaissance have saved thousands of lives, added to our ability to root out those who would do us harm, and added to our military arsenal. His brilliant work must never be forgotten.”

Webster, 94, was born in Kingston on January 26, 1918, the son of Samuel Harvey Webster, a professor at the University of Rhode Island, and of Edith Clifford Webster. He currently resides in Palo Alto, California, with his wife, Mary Sibley Webster, to whom he has been married for seventy-one years.

Webster served in the Army for twenty-two years, retiring as a Colonel in 1962. During World War II, he served in Italy and France in combat and surveillance, ending the war commanding the First Battalion of the 143rd Regiment in the 36th Division of the 7th Army.