The Webbs
Charles Webb was a practicing attorney and government legal counsel for 64 years, traveling extensively and accumulating tens of thousands of commercial air miles. His preferred carrier was American Airlines, but he does not recall receiving special recognition for his loyalty.
“The airline gave him a wife!” Maritza Webb said.
Eventually.
Charles met his future wife in the early 1980s during a quick flight between Syracuse and LaGuardia Airport in New York City. Maritza was working on board as the first-class flight attendant.
“I was the only passenger in first class,” Charles said. “It was a Sunday night; I had a case to try the next day in New York. She spilled a little decaf on me! I closed my file and we started talking.”
The conversation continued over many decades. Specifically, across 43 years of marriage. The Webbs celebrated their anniversary on June 19.
As the flight arrived in New York that Sunday night, Maritza asked a question of her friendly passenger: “If I ever need any legal advice, can I call you?”
Charles instinctively handed her a business card. Maritza phoned two weeks later, looking for a lunch date rather than legal guidance.
“I can’t do lunch,” Charles said. “But how about dinner?”
They dined at a renowned Manhattan French restaurant frequented by luminaries such as Jackie Kennedy and Frank Sinatra. Charles was well acquainted with New York’s dining scene having worked for more than 20 years for the state government.
After graduating cum laude from Albany (NY) Law School, Charles became an assistant attorney general in 1959 and worked in various capacities for a decade until he was appointed legislative counsel to the Speaker of the New York State Assembly.
Legislators were becoming increasingly concerned about the chaotic state of New York City’s public schools under then-Mayor John Lindsay.
Maritza remembers this as well. “I was in high school (in New York),” she said. “The schools were bad then.”
The looming educational crisis set into motion a search for a legislative solution that eventually became known as the New York City Schools Decentralization Act. The structure of the bill fell to one man – Charles Webb.
“I stayed up for five straight nights writing this bill,” Charles said. “It was an overhaul of the whole thing. … But finally, they all coalesced around my bill. I took it to Governor (Nelson) Rockefeller. He said, ‘This is perfect’, and it passed the legislature (on April 30, 1969).”
Around this time, a lobbyist in Rochester invited Charles and some of his colleagues to travel to Pinehurst for a few rounds of golf at The Country Club of North Carolina. CCNC made a strong first impression.
Years later Charles and Maritza, married since 1983, were raising a son, Charles IV (“Chas”), who caught the golf bug. They enrolled their son in the Nike junior golf academy, and, as fate would have it, one of the academy venues was in Moore County. This would bring Maritza to the Sandhills for the first time and afforded an opportunity for her to visit CCNC.
They became out-of-state members in 2001, a year Charles won’t soon forget because he was in Manhattan on September 11.
The Webbs were consummate New Yorkers who loved the city and their home in charming New Canaan, Connecticut, easily accessible by rail. Though he was around 70, Charles wasn’t slowing down (by now he had been a law firm partner specializing in eminent domain since 1986), and Maritza loved working international flights for American as a senior flight attendant. They also were active in their hometown church, an Episcopal house of worship in New Canaan, where Charles coordinated an annual “Strawberry Festival” that attracted more than 10,000 visitors and raised $150,000+ at its peak.
The lure of Pinehurst finally grew strong enough to entice the Webbs to purchase what would become a second home destination during get-aways from New York.
“It was an old house,” Maritza said. “It was ugly. We tore the interior all the way to the ground, expanded it and rebuilt a new house.”
Two years later, unoccupied, the home was struck by lightning, caught fire and burned down. Two more years were consumed searching for another CCNC property. When the Webbs found it, they launched another re-model. This time, their new (and current) home would be visited more frequently. Maritza retired from American Airlines after 40 years in 2016.
They joined The Village Chapel around 2018. Charles is frequently seen at the podium, masterfully delivering scripture passages from The Holy Bible as a lay reader during the Chapel’s 11 a.m. Sunday services.
“We left Connecticut (in 2016),” Maritza said. “We got an apartment in New York. For five or six years we traveled back and forth (to Pinehurst).”
Today, the Webbs reside permanently in Pinehurst. Charles’ periodic commutes to Manhattan concluded in 2022. But he cautions against reading too much into that.
“I never liked to use the word retire,” said Charles, who celebrates his 95th birthday in September.
~Contributed by Steve Woodward