Captain John Ray Webster (born March 31, 1942) is an American competitive checkers player, veterinarian, farmer, retired military officer, and musician.

He has won the North Carolina Checkers Championship eleven times and represented the United States, as a member of the United States International Checkers Team, in the World Checkers/Draughts Championship in England in 1989 and Las Vegas in 2005.

[1] Through his mother he is descended from Scottish emigrants George Irving and Jane McDonald, who came to the United States in 1834 from Closeburn, Dumfriesshire aboard the Hector.

[3] The last post office for the former community of Waddell, North Carolina was operated out of the east room of the Irving farmhouse.

[5] Webster began playing checkers when he was ten years old at country general stores.

He traveled to play in Reidsville, Danville, Draper, Burlington, and Winston-Salem through the YMCA's Chess & Checkers Association.