Professor's estate gift will leave a lasting impression

Dr. Cynthia Webster has traveled the world--literally. By the end of this year, she will have lived in, worked in, or simply explored some 40 countries. While she hasn't stopped traveling, she has made Mississippi State University her home.

The 1993 Fulbright Research Scholar has been a marketing professor at the university for only six years, but she recently made a commitment to Mississippi State that will continue her work for decades to come.

The Louisiana native has pledged to leave the university $500,000 in her will to endow The Cynthia Webster Distinguished Professorship in Consumer Behavior.

The contribution makes her a member of the university's prestigious Stephen D. Lee Society. The bequest also makes her a member of Mississippi State's newest donor group, The Old Main Society, which recognizes those who leave the university in their wills.

"Having bootstrapped myself, I became financially independent at a fairly young age," says Webster. "Hence, the funds that I've set aside for the university are not inherited. They simply come from hard work and a certain knack for financial management."

The 41-year-old professor of marketing says that she found the transition from St. Mary's University, a private institution in San Antonio, to Mississippi State somewhat difficult.

"The primary reason I accepted the university's offer was the opportunity to specialize in consumer behavior research," she explains. "However, my continued affiliation with Mississippi State has resulted in many other benefits.

"The Department of Marketing, Quantitative Analysis, and Business Law is like an extended family with respect to the quality of the relationships the faculty members have with each other, and the absence of professional envy which is all too common in many other large universities."

Webster attributes most of her satisfaction with the university to the leadership of her department chair, Dr. Henry Nash, and also to the support and encouragement of the College of Business and Industry.

In 1993 she became the College of Business and Industry's first-ever Fulbright Research Scholar. The consumer behavior expert spent eight months in India immersing herself in the culture of the country by living as a paying guest in Indian households and studying marital power in purchase decision making.

Traveling is nothing new to Webster, however. She spent her childhood traveling across 30 states while her father worked in the gas pipeline industry.

"Due to my training for the lifestyle of a nomad and the adventurous facet of my personality, traveling became easy for me," Webster says.

She recalls that it was primarily her extensive reading about exotic places and different cultures as a child that peaked her interest and desire in traveling abroad. She has studied in many European countries, on topics ranging from architecture to opera. While Webster has been to such places as Moscow, Cairo, Bangkok, Istanbul, Dublin, and Copenhagen, she particularly enjoys getting off the beaten path.

She has floated the length of the Nile, traveled by elephant through the foothills of the Himalayas, trekked through the jungles in northern Thailand, traveled by camel through the Thar Desert, explored the River Kwai, and stayed in Nepalese villages with no electricity.

A considerable amount of Webster's travel is centered around her research, either collecting data or presenting papers at competitive international conferences. She has spoken on her research work in such places as Paris, Delhi, Budapest, Hong Kong, and Barcelona.

"These sojourns are intermingled with pleasure and adventure," she notes. "But, they also stem from my interest in people and cultures, and from my appreciation of how we, the people from all over the world, are so much alike one another, yet so vastly different."

Webster's interest in people--particularly in helping them--also manifests itself in her psychotherapy training and desire to alleviate others' emotional ills.

Her work, and her travels, have netted for her numerous recognition including being selected as an Outstanding Young Woman of America in 1984, winning best paper awards at conferences in 1989 and 1994, and winning the Outstanding Research Award of the College of Business and Industry in 1990.

She also has published in top-tier marketing journals such as the Journal of Consumer Research and the Journal of Marketing Research, a first for her department at Mississippi State.

Because of her estate gift, Webster's work in consumer behavior will continue for many years. The interest earned annually from her gift will be used as a salary supplement to recruit to Mississippi State a nationally recognized educator in the area of consumer behavior to become a distinguished professor.

"The fund will allow the university to bring in someone who is doing top-level work in this field, who is publishing in the top three scholarly marketing journals on a regular basis and participating actively in national conferences," says Webster. "And this educator must continue to be visible nationally and internationally during the time they hold the professorship."

Webster received her bachelor's and master's degrees from Northwestern State University in Natchitoches, La., in 1975 and 1977, respectively. She earned her doctorate in philosophy from North Texas State University in 1984. She joined the Mississippi State faculty in 1989.