Donovan Webster

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Donovan James Webster (January 13, 1959 – July 4, 2018) was an American journalist, author, filmmaker, and humanitarian. He grew up in Wilmette, a suburb of Chicago, and went to New Trier High School. He earned a BA in English from Kenyon College in 1981 and studied at Middlebury College’s Breadloaf School of English for his MFA. He moved to New York City, wrote for magazines, and helped launch Southern magazine in 1986; Time, Inc. bought it in 1989. He later became a senior editor at Outside magazine before writing full time.

In 1996, after writing about landmines for The New York Times Magazine, he co-founded Physicians Against Landmines and the Center for International Rehabilitation (CIR). CIR is an international humanitarian group that supports field hospitals, prosthetics programs, and disability advocacy. Webster served as CIR’s vice-chairman. CIR helped drive global efforts that contributed to the Nobel Peace Prize in 1997 as part of the International Campaign to Ban Landmines. In 2006 CIR played a role in the United Nations’ Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.

Webster also helped start Tidene USA in 2007, the U.S. arm of Tidene, which builds wells, a school, and a hospital for the Tuareg people in Niger. In 2014 Tidene USA merged into Les Puits du Desert/Tidene. Funding came from the U.S. Congress and French donors.

He wrote for Smithsonian, The New Yorker, The New York Times Magazine, and other outlets, and contributed to documentaries and expeditions. He helped lead Running the Sahara, a 2006–2007 on-foot crossing of North Africa that became a film narrated by Matt Damon. In 2009 he and his son trained as gladiators at Rome’s Gladiator School. In 2011 he and photographer Ron Haviv documented illegal gold mining in Peru for the film Amazon Gold.

In 2014 Webster was involved in a fatal car crash in Virginia and was charged with driving under the influence. He later pleaded guilty to involuntary manslaughter. He spoke openly about his battle with alcohol and PTSD in a 2018 AARP article. Donovan Webster died on July 4, 2018.