W. I. "Jim" Burns was Westbury's first principal. A lieutenant colonel in the Army Air Corps during World War II, Burns had taught chemistry at San Jacinto and Lamar High Schools and had opened Bellaire High School as assistant principal. The principal of Bellaire, Harland Andrews, complained that all of his good teachers wanted to transfer to Westbury so they could work under Burns. Many of the first staff members did, indeed, follow Burns from Bellaire High School. Among them were Westbury's first assistant principal, Kenneth Gupton, and the dean, Rivers Lodge. Lodge became assistant principal in 1970.