Scott Turnbull Spencer
1/18/35 - 7/19/20 Resident of Menlo Park
Scott passed away peacefully on July 19, 2020 at Mission House Hospice in Redwood City after a long battle with type 2 diabetes and its complications along with dementia in his final years. His wife was by his side. Scott leaves his wife of 41 years, Gayle Spencer, of Menlo Park, CA, sister, Kaiti Poehlmann, of Colorado Springs, CO, and brother-in-law, Erwin (Mac) Forbes of Shasta Lake, CA. Scott was preceded in death by his Father, John (Jack) Spencer of Lordsburg N.M., Mother, Gretchen Spencer, of Colorado Springs, brother-in-law, George Poehlmann, of Colorado Springs. He graduated from high school in Lordsburg, N.M., received a BS degree in Chemistry from New Mexico State University in Las Cruces, where he was a member of Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity, and a Masters degree in Applied Math from Santa Clara University in Santa Clara, CA.
Scott, a 2nd Lieutenant in the US Navy, served on the aircraft carrier USS Lexington and for a while was stationed in Japan. He received an honorable discharge in 1960. Scott retired from his job of Systems Programmer on Univac mainframe computers at Lockheed Missiles and Space Company in 1992 after 30 years service. He was an early advocate of personal computers, buying one of the first Macintoshes in 1984.
Scott loved folk and classical music, opera, and the contemporary symphonic music featured at the annual Cabrillo Festival of Contemporary Music and until recent times attended every year since 1976. The festival performances were held in the charming San Juan Bautista Mission and in Santa Cruz at various venues over the years. Those were really good times. He also catered to his wife’s interests in bird watching and native plants, accompanying her on many outings.
Scott enjoyed traveling and in 1966 took a six month leave from work to tour Europe in a little brown Porsche that he had ordered and picked up in Germany. Later he lamented that all the travel literature he collected in Europe and purchases were stolen from the Porsche trunk on its boat trip to America. He and Gayle also took many “camping” trips in the US, first in their Volkswagen Vanagon and later in their Ford Adventurewagen. They also traveled to Mexico, Holland, England, Scotland, Wales, Germany, France and Switzerland visiting museums, botanic gardens and trekking in the Alps. In 1979 using an Eastern Airlines unlimited mileage offer they visited Florida, the Yucatan Peninsula, Puerto Rico, Trinidad, and Haiti. What a great trip that was. US destinations included Museums, National and State Parks in the western US and in 2001 a wonderful Sierra Club trip touring in Alaska.
Seems like Scott had quite a good life - now he is very much missed. Regrettably due to Covid-19 concerns there won’t be a ceremony at this time. Please make any donations in his memory to the charity of your choice.