Colston Westbrook

Colston Richard Westbrook (1937–1989) was a teacher and linguist who worked in the fields of minority education and literacy.

Westbrook was born on September 14, 1937 in Chambersburg, Pennsylvania. He also grew up in this area. His father was Sgt. Edward Cody Westbrook, who died in Germany, while serving in World War II. His mother, Virginia Ruth Colston, was a housewife, who held various jobs to raise their five children.

Westbrook attended Chambersburg Primary and High schools, graduating with Honors in 1955. After graduation he and his elder brother, Cody, travelled from Pennsylvania to Richmond, California to live with their maternal grandmother. Colston attended Contra Costa College, in San Pablo, California where he excelled, particularly at languages, and was an honors student. He was selected to travel to Rome, Italy to represent Contra Costa College, based on President Eisenhower's People to People Student Ambassador Program.

Westbrook taught English at the International Christian University in Tokyo.

He joined the Army/Air Force. After an assignment in Korea, he was assigned to Travis Air Force Base in California in 1960. He was deployed to Vietnam and honorably discharged in 1967.

After this, he worked as a civilian with Pacific Architects and Engineers (now a part of Lockheed Martin). In 1974, The New York Times noted that:

When a journalist later asked why he went to Vietnam, Westbrook answered, "Money, why else? I was told by the American Embassy in Tokyo I could make $10,000 working in Vietnam. They said it pays to be black in Nam".

In 1968, Westbrook returned to the United States. He enrolled in the Linguistics department at the University of California, Berkeley in September 1970. By this time, he had mastered several foreign languages — Korean, Japanese, Italian, German, and French. He also studied Swahili at Berkeley with Bwana Kaaya, from Tanzania. He understood and had a working knowledge of Bakweri.

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