Robert T. Spencer ’60 died on January 30, 2026, in Westminster, Colorado.
(The following was provided by the Boulder Daily Camera on March 6, 2026:)
Robert T. Spencer ’60
Robert Thomas Spencer (Bob/Grandbear) was born March 27, 1939, to Earl Spencer and Beatrice Lister Spencer in Lawrence, MA.
Bob passed peacefully at home on January 30, 2026, at the age of 86, after a long battle with chronic myelomonocytic leukemia (CMML) and kidney disease. He was surrounded by his loving Colorado family hours before his death. He had spent sixteen months under wonderful care by TRU Hospice.
Bob was an only child, and thus had much attention from his stay-at-home mom, who taught him to read and do basic math before entering first grade. He went to many schools (six), including Cape Elizabeth High School (ME), and graduated from New Haven High School in Hamden, CT, in 1956.
In the fall of 1956, he went to Bowdoin College in Brunswick, Maine. At Bowdoin he played varsity hockey and lacrosse. He graduated from Bowdoin in June 1960 with a bachelor of arts degree, majoring in sociology. As an alumnus, he was a strong supporter of Bowdoin and had many close friends from the college.
He continued to play hockey with the New Haven Flyers and played at the “Snoopy Senior World Hockey Tournament” held in Santa Rosa, CA, for several years. He continued playing hockey in Colorado until he was 72.
Bob loved music (especially jazz and classical), the theater, classic cars, golf, skiing, travel, and dinner parties, and in his final year, he read many non-fiction books.
He married Joyce Johnson, a Mount Holyoke College 1960 graduate in December 1960 and they shared sixty-five years of marriage together. They had two children, Sally Beth and Carson Jeffrey who both attended Bowdoin College, as did one grandson, Tanner Johnson Thomas.
Bob worked in Hartford, CT, for Aetna Insurance in the Group division for several years, then with Goodwin Loomis and Britton Insurance Agency in employee benefit sales.
Camping was a big part of his life while the children were growing up. The family took many camping trips across the USA and Canada.
Bob and Joyce travelled to approximately fifty different countries/islands over the span of their marriage.
They lived in a house in Glastonbury, CT, for over thirty-seven years where they had many close friends. In 2001 they moved to Westminster, CO, to follow their two children, who had both settled in the greater Denver area.
Bob will be remembered as a man who taught the family the value of education, the importance of thinking deeply and working hard, and as a giver of thoughtful advice, even if they weren’t quite ready to hear it yet. A welcoming host and supportive soul to all, he was known for pulling up to Porsche 944 (for the grandkids) — music blaring (yes, “Jump” by Van Halen) — making them feel impossibly cool. A lover of camping, global adventures, financial common sense, and a hearty laugh, he was, in every way, steady, generous, and devoted to his family.
He was predeceased in death by much-loved son, Carson Jeffrey Spencer (2004).
He leaves behind his family members: daughter Sally Spencer-Thomas, son-in-law Randall Rex Thomas, and their three sons, Nicholas Rex Thomas, Tanner Johnson Thomas, and Jackson Alexander Thomas; Avery Lankford, Jackson’s partner; his daughter-in-law, Heather Bacon Spencer; granddaughter Kaija Isabelle Spencer and grandson Carson James Richards; and two great-grandchildren, Rylo Nathum Richards and Moesha Acèana Richards.