William Richard Tolbert Jr. was the 20th President of Liberia, a position he held from 1971 until 1980, when he was killed in a coup d'état led by Samuel Doe.
Trained as a civil servant, he entered the country's House of Representatives in 1943 for the True Whig Party, then the only established party in the country. He was elected Vice President to William Tubman in 1952 and served in that position until he became President following Tubman's death in 1971.