Image

William H. Webster served as U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Missouri from 1960 to 1961. In 1970, he was appointed a judge of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Missouri and in 1973 was elevated to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit. During his service on the bench, Webster was Chairman of the Judiciary Conference Advisory Committee on the Criminal Rules and was a member of the Ad Hoc Committee on Habeas Corpus and the Committee of Court Administration. He resigned on February 23, 1978 to become Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, where he served for nearly a decade before moving on to lead all foreign intelligence agencies of the United States as CIA director. In this position he headed the United States intelligence community and directed the CIA until September 1991. Following his departure from the CIA, he joined the law firm now known as Milbank in its Washington office. He received his B.A. from Amherst College and his J.D. from Washington University in St. Louis. In 1991, Webster was presented the Distinguished Intelligence Medal. On July 25, 1991, he was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom and the National Security Medal.