Marion Havas Webster

A retired NIH Budget Analyst, died at home on February 23, 2012. She did volunteer work at Sibley Hospital and Hillwood Estate Gardens. She is survived by her husband, Henry de Forest Webster. Her children are Christopher White Webster, Henry de Forest Webster II, Sally Ann Webster, David Leslie Webster and Steven George Webster. She has six grandchildren and many friends nearby.
A Memorial Service will be held at 2 p.m. on Sunday, March 4 at the Friendship Heights Village Community Center 4433 South Park Avenue. Chevy Chase MD, 20815.

Published in The Washington Post from February 28 to March 2, 2012

because i can't imagine there's a huge list of them who can accept the things you have to do to make yourself heard in new york city.

how sweet of you lou. i only saw the first part of yr msg while i was at work and wondered what the amazing msg was that you were gonna tell me about. i was so surprised to find that it was the msg i sent you!

i took a really big leap when i decided to leave and didn't know if there would be anything better on the other side of the chasm i leaped from, and it hasn't been easy, but i know i'm where i belong as strongly as i knew i wasn't where i belonged before. gratitude is important, but also courage, just the same as what you did and were prepared to do to find your own happiness.

what's interesting is that women i know who are younger, prettier, thinner are not doing as well as i am and are actually jealous of me- how strange is that? people don't understand that besides the gratitude, attitude is next important. when you're happy, everyone wants a piece of it and people can see that i'm happy. just got hit on again yesterday at my job. it always surprises me. and they're usually way younger than i am. unbelievable!

i've been learning to treat myself better than i ever have my whole life. everyone else always came first. now i buy myself fresh flowers once a week, get a pedicure with a sassy dark color, have beautiful lingerie in bold colors, treat myself to a completely frivolous pretty pair of shoes once in a while. i never used to indulge in such things. who knew a great pair of shoes would put a smile on my face all day long? and if it makes me feel pretty, then it's worth it. i've always been so practical, but now i temper it when possible.we're all responsible for our own happiness.

i've been sick with laryngitis all this wk & it drove me crazy not to be able to sing, but my voice is just strong enuf now to be able to do a 3 part harmony last night. that is so much fun when it fits right. so beautiful. i joined a bunch of bluegrassers for red river valley. not my style but i can do it. now that a bunch of ppl have heard me sing, they're getting interested in collaborating for a duet or playing backup for me. that's got me very excited. my fear is gone now and there's only joy. i found a great bunch of ppl to play with and we've become friends in less than a month since i started going.

just got my review at work today and got the maximum raise for my payscale. i wasn't sure that would happen, though i've always gotten excellent reviews consistently, because there's been so much turmoil in my life in the year since i came back to work full time after being sick and then leaving my husband, packing & moving, court dates, house sale, figuring out dating and social life, i've been more scatterbrained than usual but trader joe's where i work has been very flexible and forgiving when i forget what time i'm due in, or space out occasionally.

you're such a kind sweet man lou. i can't imagine that you're not inundated with women. perhaps you are. if you lived near me, i would love to hang out with you. i'm pretty content with the man i'm seeing, but it's too early to be thinking about anything other than having a good time and catching up on all the good stuff i was missing when i was married.

thank you for all your kind words and encouragement. it means a lot to me. how is my story encouraging to you? it seems to me that you have already been living your dream and sacrificing things and maybe relationships to hold onto it. how long have you been living the life you dreamed of? i thought it must be a while, but maybe it hasn't been all that long. how did your gig go, or did that happen yet? please tell me about it. i know what the life of a street busker is like, and it's full of sacrifices but full of rewards as well. i believe in the happiness index rather than money and things to define success. the people in costa rica have it right. but not everyone in this country would feel successful based on their definition. the things that most impress me about people are things that have no monetary value.

i hope that, if you haven't already, you find some wonderful woman who can accept the life you lead and encourage you to do what makes you happy, because i can't imagine there's a huge list of them who can accept the things you have to do to make yourself heard in new york city. a lot of people don't want to struggle and end up giving up their dreams in favor of comfort.

The outcome of all of this was a 'Lord of the Flies' kind of chaos.

At its birth in 2000, the executives who created GlaxoSmithKline crowed that the company would unleash a cabinetful of new medicines. ''We will be the kings of science and innovation,'' Dr. Jean-Pierre Garnier, the chief executive, said at the time.

Three years later, GlaxoSmithKline is still a long way from its coronation.

The company has introduced just three new medicines, only one of which it discovered. Indeed, nine top scientists who recently left Glaxo said they believe its laboratories' productivity was getting worse, not better. ''It's a disaster,'' said one of them, Dr. Peter G. Traber, who was the company's chief of clinical development until February.

What went wrong? According to Dr. Traber and others, the very thing that was supposed to bolster the labs' output -- the merger -- has instead hampered it.

If they are correct, GlaxoSmithKline's problems could have implications for the entire industry. Poor lab productivity is bedeviling almost every drug company. Across the industry, introductions of new drugs plummeted last year to 17 from a high of 53 in 1996, despite a near doubling in annual research spending, to $32 billion.


To survive the long drought at the lab, many executives have concluded that one company is better than two. The $400 billion worldwide pharmaceutical industry has rapidly consolidated; 38 major drug companies have merged since 1994. And at nearly every major merger announcement, executives said that lab synergies were a driving force behind the deals.

But many scientists say that if mergers are executives' cure for poor pipelines, the medicine is making the patient sicker. And they point to Glaxo, the world's second-largest pharmaceutical company, after Pfizer, as proof.

''The effect of mergers on research productivity is an issue that this industry has yet to deal with,'' said Dr. Traber, who left Glaxo to run the Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, one of the nation's top centers of biomedical research. ''You save a bit of money, but it's disaster to the labs.''


David Webster, president of the Webster Consulting Group, which specializes in the drug industry, said that his research confirms Dr. Traber's conclusions. Mr. Webster noted that many of GlaxoSmithKline's top scientists left voluntarily shortly after the merger. A major reorganization in the midst of a merger, Mr. Webster said, increased the uncertainties for all and made even basic decisions difficult. ''The outcome of all of this was a 'Lord of the Flies' kind of chaos,'' he said.

Where Are All the New Drugs?
by Gardiner Harris

October 5, 2003

What really touched me is your statement that I helped in some small way to make you a person of conscience.

I am writing to tell you that you had a profound impact on my development as a sentient human being and a person of conscience, of caring.

I am prone to hyperbole, but I am not using it here.  *profound.*  I will do great things one day, and you will hear about them (and me), and when you do, I want you to know that you were the best thing that ever happened to me.

I can think and I can speak and I can articulate my thoughts, logically and provocatively, because of you.

You sacrificed selflessly to make me and others sentient beings, in the best sense of the word.
Most of the great literature I read in my life I read in your class.
You have much to be proud of, and I thank you.

Peace, hippie lou aka david


David, your timing could not have been better in sending such encouraging words. I really needed to be reminded that we teachers have made an impact for the good on those we attempt to teach.

What really touched me is your statement that I helped in some small way to make you a person of conscience, one who cares for his fellow travellers in life's journey.   It's messages like yours that mean so much more than any paycheck that the impersonal school system issues.  You are such a considerate young man in offering your thoughts on the impact I may have made on you and, I hope, your fellow chassmates.

I'm willing to bet that I don't have to wait to hear about the great things you have done with your life since we last saw one another.  Knowing you as I think I do from your days at Whitman, I expect that you have already achieved true greatness.  If you'd care to share, I'd love to know more details about your life these past few decades. (Just saying that makes me feel old.)

I still enjoy what I'm doing.   I occasionally get a chance to teach some of the great literature I loved teaching when you were in my class.  Needless to say, I don't miss grading all those compositions and research papers.  I do miss coaching forensics.  You guys on the forensic team were my best students and the ones I most miss.  We had some great times, didn't we?

I'll look forward to hearing from you.  And, yes, peace!

Our serendipitous encounter provided a puffy cloud-like companion to my mind.

Dear Hippie Lou,

Our serendipitous encounter provided a puffy cloud-like companion to my mind as I sauntered away into the sun.

1) Red is not your color.  It ages you unnecessarily.  Perhaps consider your previously natural dark brown with navy or metallic blue tips.
2) Pam seems to be a rare find.
3) Words fall gracefully onto paper from your fingers; however, if decide to turn this into a book, you need an editor.

Let us meet again soon.  I enjoyed our extended chat.

just wanted to take the time to say thank you obi wan... you always have really encouraging positive things to say to me... good or bad day... this padawan is grateful to have you as a guiding force.

i should treasure my gift.

the absolute highlight of my afternoon started in the bowels of the union square mta station…after fighting my way downstairs and onto the crowded uptown 6 platform, a short man appears before me; his eyes twinkling.

he smells slightly of alcohol, but it’s that smell when someone drinks and then covers it up with a breath mint or something.  he isn’t full board blasting, and shows no signs of inebriation.  ”can you play me some classic rock?  anything, anything.  don’t tell me what you’re playing, i’ll try to guess.”  such exuberance, how could i turn him down?

so trains are roaring in and out of the station…i wait for a lull, and then break into my old chestnut, the wind cries mary.  i figure that qualifies as classic rock, no?  there’s a signature part of the song, the part that goes doo doo doo, it’s an ascending hammer-on, and as soon as my newly made acquaintance hears it he says, “and the wind, it HOWLS…”

i said yeah, you got it bro.  the word mescaline is the next thing out of his mouth, he kept saying it, along with are you experienced.  ”that’s the album that song’s from, isn’t it?”  i said yeah, you got it bro.  he proceeds to describe with great delight (and relish) his experience listening to the album, i’m assuming while tripping on mescaline, but at this point it’s pure conjecture on my part.

“i was listening to the album, and i saw jimi hendrix with a headband.”  hmmm, i say to myself, jimi hendrix often wore a headband.  ”no bro,” he said, reading my mind, “this was before i ever saw a picture of him.”

so on we went, by now we’re on the 6 train headed uptown.  i learn my friend is from brockton ma, and he has a hard core boston accent.  nothing to sneeze at, because i learn later in our conversation that he’s been in the ny to the c since 1983.  which now that i write it, is the year a merman i should turn to be.

mass?  i proceed to tell him about my travels to amherst college at age 16, my love encounter with psychedelics and a bootleg tape of fire on the mountain, an experience that changed my life forever.
so my stop’s coming up, and i just had to know why he was in ny and what drew him here.  we got to the heart of the matter quickly.  ”in ny, i’m like an ant.  in any other city, i stick out.  no one cares here.”

back to the high watt smile.  train pulls in the station.  what’s your name, bro?  ”i’m george.”  hi george, i’m hippie lou.

he looked me straight in the eye.  ”i’d give anything to be able to play the guitar.”

as i was stepping off the train, i shouted back, you should learn, bro, it’s never too late.  it’s my standard answer, my standard encouragement, my standard reprise..  he’s 53, i thought to myself, but so what?

“it *is* too late.”

as the train pulled off, this remark exploded in my brain, my psyche, my consciousness.  shrapnel, grapeshot, god knows what else flying everywhere.

it hit me hard.  guitar is a difficult instrument.  i have been playing for 42 years, and am just now starting to really feel it, really connect with myself and my instrument to the point where something magical happens when i play for people.

i shouldn’t be so polyannish about the skill, the experience i have acquired.  it is such a privilege to pick an instrument up and make it sing.

i should treasure my gift. i am so lucky to be able to work on it and share it with others, to make their day a little brighter.

thank you george.  i’ll never forget you, or my tears as i write this.

you made me cry, mary.


march 2012.