Alice Holland Webster 1932-2026

Alice Holland Webster of South Chatham, Mass., and formerly of Cleveland Heights, Ohio, died March 3 at home, surrounded by family and under hospice care. She was 93.
Alice was born in 1932 to Gertrude Bancroft Holland of St. Paul, Minn., and H. Brian Holland of Brentford, England, and grew up in Washington, D.C., and Wellesley, Mass., where she attended the Dana Hall School as a day student. She earned a zoology degree from Smith College in 1954 and met her late husband, Dr. Leslie T. Webster Jr., the following year while working at a Harvard-affiliated hospital in Boston.
   They wed in 1955 and moved to the Cleveland area, where Leslie worked at University Hospitals and Western Reserve Medical School. Although Alice bore the first of their four children in 1956 and stayed home to raise them for 30-plus years, she never lost her love of travel, foreign languages and adventure.
She traveled in Greece every fall after learning conversational Greek. She spoke fluent French as well as some German and Italian. When her youngest child reached school age, Alice began taking graduate classes in anthropology and archaeology at Case Western Reserve university and volunteering in the paleontology lab at the Cleveland Museum of Natural History, as well as on field digs.
She helped to uncover bony fish fossils along the shores of Lake Erie, indigenous sites in Ohio and a colonial settlement on Martha’s Vineyard. She was paid to supervise students and volunteers on some digs, a fact of which she was very proud. She also volunteered on digs in Honduras and Turkey through the Earthwatch Institute, and traveled to archaeological sites in Mexico, Italy and France.
A voracious reader and lover of art, music and theater, Alice was a lifelong learner and volunteer, often chairing committees. She worked for many years with the “Medical School Wives” on their annual used book sale to benefit medical student scholarships. She was also a leading volunteer at the Cleveland Playhouse. A strong believer in women’s right to plan their families so that they can pursue higher education and careers, Alice also marched with NARAL and donated to Planned Parenthood. She strongly supported the right to die movement, too.
Alice remained active, including playing tennis with friends and co-owning a bookstore, into her 80s. In 2002, she bought a house near her parents’ cottage in South Chatham and began spending every summer on the Cape. She volunteered at the Atwood House Museum and at the South Chatham Library, where she served on the board.
In 2019, Alice moved from Cleveland Heights to the Cape full time. She crammed her house with books and continued to read The Boston Globe, The New Yorker, Smithsonian, the Cape Cod Chronicle, histories and mysteries until her death.
Alice was predeceased by Leslie, in 2018, and her brother, Charles Holland, of South Chatham, in 2024. She is survived by her four children: Katharine Webster of Atkinson, N.H.; Susan Van Drie of North Andover, Mass., Dr. Leslie T. Webster III of Charlotte, N.C.; and Dr. Romi Webster of East Greenwich, R.I.; their spouses, children and grandchildren; her sister-in-law, Peggy Holland, of South Chatham; and her brother-in-law, John Webster, of Mystic, Conn.
A memorial celebration and reception will be held Saturday, July 11, at 11:30 a.m. at the South Chatham Village Hall. Burial will be private. Donations in Alice’s memory can be made to the South Chatham Library, the Lower Cape Outreach Council, or the Alice H. and Leslie T. Webster Jr. Endowed Scholarship Fund at Smith College.