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Health & Fitness

Local Voices: East Palo Alto Man's Multiple Labor Days of Love

Community activist extraordinaire, William Webster, accomplishes much through his consistent labor of love for East Palo Alto.

I still recall the conversation we had while munching cookies on the front patio after church.

“Do you know who I am?” he asked.  An odd sort of question to be sure, if taken out of context, but I could tell where he was coming from, since I was asking about his recent whereabouts and activities.

Although I certainly knew his name and had some idea of his various community activities, I have to admit I wasn’t fully aware of the extent of his involvement. Not even close.

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The man I was talking to was none other than William Webster. No, not the former head of the FBI and CIA (although that would have been cool), but William Webster of East Palo Alto, community activist extraordinaire.  

You may have read about this guy in the San Jose Mercury News earlier this year. Some of the remarkable things he’s done include:

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  • Being a founding member of the East Palo Alto Community Alliance and Neighborhood Development Organization (EPA CAN DO).
  • Serving on the boards of Community Legal Services in East Palo Alto (CLSEPA) and the East Palo Alto Council of Tenants (EPACT) Education Fund.
  • Serving on the East Palo Alto Rent Stabilization Board for the past 19 years.
  • Attending at least 95 percent of East Palo Alto's regular City Council meetings over the past 23 years (and he’s not even a member!).

Oh, and did I mention that since 1992, he’s worked as an administrative associate in Stanford University’s Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics?  Sure, he gets paid for that. But something tells me that those folks at Stanford are getting a lot of bang for their buck.

According to the article in the Mercury News, William credits his activism and energy to his upbringing as a Christian Scientist, the church he’s still involved with today. This is where I first met him some six or seven years ago, a quiet man (that is, until you get him revved up about some issue he’s passionate about) who served as the piano player in Sunday school.  

That’s right. On top of everything else, William still finds time to contribute when and where he can to his local church, a true labor of love.

Although today is a day to honor laborers of many stripes, I wanted to applaud just this one, a man who for years has put service ahead of self and who continues to make a huge difference in the lives of so many people.

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