Westel W. Willoughby

Who was Westel W. Willoughby?

Westel Woodbury Willoughby, was an American academic.

He was the twin brother to William F. Willoughby. They were the sons of Westel Willoughby and Jennie Rebecca Willoughby, their father having been a Major in the Union Army with the New York Volunteers, injured at the Battle of Chancellorsville. The elder Willoughby served on the Supreme Court of Appeals for Virginia following the war and presided over the Custis case in which the land for Arlington National Cemetery was awarded to the U.S. Government.

Westel Woodbury Willoughby graduated with an A.B. from Johns Hopkins University in the class of 1888, continued with graduate work and received his Ph.D from Hopkins in 1891 at a time when political science was not yet recognized as a separate discipline. His degree was awarded by the combined departments of history and economics.

On 27 June 1893, he was married to Grace Robinson, daughter of Franklin Marvin Robinson, a prominent lawyer of Dubuque, Iowa. After practicing law for a few years with his father in Washington, D.C., Westel W. Willoughby responded to a call from Hopkins to join the faculty in 1898. He moved to Roland Park, Maryland along with his wife Grace and their two young children Westel Robinson Willoughby and Laura Robinson Willoughby.