Bob Webster is the incoming interim Superintendent of Alternative Organizational Structure (AOS) 98 schools while the board seeks replacement candidates for Eileen King, outgoing superintendent.

Webster is from New Sharon, where he grew up with seven siblings on his father’s dairy farm. He graduated from Mount Blue High School in Farmington and attended the University of Maine at Farmington where he met his wife, Faith, a fellow member of the class of 1975.

Webster’s career in education has taken him all over the state. He started his teaching career in a social studies classroom in Jackman, and after four years he moved on to the Garret Schenck School in Anson where he served as a teaching principal. Because the position called for full-time teaching and full-time administrative duties, Webster moved on to Hermon High School and Strong Elementary School, and landed back in Farmington at his alma mater, Mount Blue High School. He applied for the assistant principal position at the same time as a schoolmate one year behind him was applying for principal.

“That was only 15 years after we graduated,” said Webster. “There were a lot of people there who had taught us. It was an interesting time for everyone – evaluating teachers that I had!”

After two years at Mount Blue, Webster moved back to Jackman to serve as the superintendent principal where he had the opportunity to focus on administrative duties with the occasional freshman civics class.

With four years of superintending under his belt, Webster landed in Regional School Unit (RSU) 76 as superintendent of The Brooklin School, Sedgewick Elementary School, and Deer Isle-Stonington Elementary and High schools. He remained there for 19 years before retiring to Strong when he and his wife decided they wanted to live closer to family.

“In order to go to a junior high basketball game, it was a six-hour round trip, so we decided to move back to western Maine.”

Since retiring, Webster has enjoyed time with his family and hobbies like gardening and snowshoeing. One of his favorite hobbies is genealogy. He is the membership secretary for the Maine Old Cemeteries Association. Last year, he stepped in as interim superintendent for RSU 76.

What are some of the important things to know about Webster?

“Call me Bob. And I don’t drink coffee. A lot of times you hear people say, ‘Come in and have a cup of coffee and shoot the breeze’ – but I don’t drink coffee!”

Even though Webster does not like coffee, he does enjoy shooting the breeze. “I hope people will feel comfortable talking to me – if someone has a concern that they would share it. I am very comfortable doing that. I hope to be out and about … I always tried to be into every school at least once a week.”