Charles E. Webber
Charles E. (Ted) Webber, perhaps the Roanoke Valley’s best known citizen of the 20th Century, is a 1918 graduate of Salem High School. This revered man for over 30 was owner of Webber’s Pharmacy in Salem, President and Chairman of the Board of Farmers National Bank, treasurer of First United Methodist Church for over 30 years, the founding member of the West Central 4-H Center (Smith Mountain Lake), and the only Virginian to hold the #2 position in the worldwide Scottish Rite Supreme Council.
In 1916, Webber was first-string guard of the State Championship basketball team and a 1917 triple threat back on the State Championship football team those high school years. In October 1918, Ted enlisted in the U.S. Army. After his service, he attended VMI and Roanoke College. Then Ted studied and passed the State Boards in 1922. He owned and operated Webber’s Pharmacy from 1925-59. Entering the banking business in 1932 with election to the board of Directors of Farmers National Bank in Salem, he rose to Vice President, 1941; President, 1954-65; Chairman of the Board, 1962; Acting President; ‘69-’70; and in 1971 received the bank’s Outstanding Service citation.
Born January 11, 1900, in Salem, Virginia, to Frank Glendye Webber and Emma Minor Webber, he married Pauline Graham Webber, herself a registered pharmacist. They had two children, Charles Edward Webber, Jr. of Richmond, Virginia with Bristol Laboratories, Inc. and Jean Webber Payne, of Greensboro, North Carolina, who is a registered pharmacist in Virginia and in North Carolina.
Webber’s organizational interests began at Roanoke College with the XI Chapter of the Pi Kappa Phi fraternity which named him Outstanding Alumnus in 1964-65 and gave him its Golden Legion Award in 1969.
“C.E.” , as Webber was most often called in later years, was a member of the Board at Virginia Western Community College, Old Virginia Brick Company, McVitty House, Inc. (now Richfield Nursing Center) , West Central 4-H Educational Center, which placed a bronze plaque at its lodge reading: “In grateful appreciation and honor of C.E. Webber, Founder and loyal Supporter” and Various offices for sixteen other groups, including Chairmanship of the Roads Committee of Salem Chamber of Commerce, instrumental in obtaining Highway Commission funds to build the local heavily traveled Route 419.
Ted is the recipient of 22 non-Masonic awards, both in Virginia and six other states. In 1969 South Salem’s park was named “the Ted Webber Recreational Area” , and in 1980 he became a 50-year member of Salem Kiwanis Club.
His Masonic record begins with Taylor Lode No. 23, A.F. & A.M. in Salem, Virginia, on April 8, 1921. It includes 49 related entries, with Tokyo Bay, Greenland, Antarctic Circle, and four local Lodges bestowing upon Ted Honorary Membership. He has served in Various high offices of distinction, among them: Grand Master of Masons of Virginia (1948), Grand High Priest of Royal Arch Masons in Virginia (1942), Potentate of Kazim Temple, A.A.O.N.M.S. in Roanoke, Virginia, and the only Virginian to hold the #2 position in the world wide Scottish Rite Supreme Council.
In Recognition of his outstanding achievements, in 1996 Charles Edward Webber was among the charter members inducted into the Salem Alumni Hall of Fame established by the Salem Educational Foundation and Alumni Association.
