William "Bill" Spencer

Bill Spencer passed peacefully from this world surrounded by family on September 26, 2024. Bill was the second of seven children of Dale and Normalee Spencer. He came to California as a toddler and grew up in Santa Rosa in a house his dad built. Billy had polio as a child and persevered through surgeries and procedures that didn’t deter him from building forts, playing army and once running away from home, forgetting to bring his glasses. Bill met his wife Barbara in 1965 and was married soon after. They went on to have two children. His drawing abilities landed him a grant for trade school in San Francisco during the Summer of Love. Drafting took him to the South Bay where he worked on contract for companies including Applied Materials, Ford Aerospace, Varian, Memorex and many more. Bill loved music. At family parties, he would dance till his knee gave out—to the consternation of his wife. Once, he and his brother Ed took a wrong turn at the drive-in and wound up watching the movie, The Blues Brothers. He was hooked. He loved the blues, bluegrass, sang in the choir and played the recorder. While living in the South Bay, Bill built and flew u-control/control line planes, and later radio control (RC) gliders. In the 1980s, Bill and Barb moved to Simi Valley, where some of his favorite childhood cowboy movies were made. He went for several years to the Lone Pine Film Festival, gun shows and took a memorable trip to Cody, Wyoming to see the Buffalo Bill Center. In 2004, he and Barb retired to Creswell, Oregon, where Bill enjoyed camping trips in eastern Oregon with his brother Ted and finally having time to build and fly, and often repair, RC planes. Bill was a member and served as Secretary for many years for the Creswell RC Flyers. He loved antique tools, airplanes of all kinds, woodworking, and figuring out ways to restore, fix and improve stuff. He was a solid friend, loving Dad, would help anyone in need and never met a joke he didn’t like. Even going through chemo, he had a new joke for his doctors and nurses at every visit. Bill was preceded in death by his wife Barbara, and brothers Chuck, Ted and Ed. He is survived by his daughter Kris (Anthony), son Doug, grandsons Jared and Zachary, brother Paul and sisters Therese (Rod) and Celeste, plus many, many friends and extended family.