Derek W. Spencer
The Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution announces with great sorrow
the death January 16, 2006 of Scientist Emeritus and former Associate
Director for Research Derek W. Spencer at his home in Tucson, Arizona
at age 71. He had kidney problems and had been in poor health
since last winter.
Derek Wardle Spencer was born May 2, 1934 in South Shields, England,
and attended Manchester University, receiving a B.S. degree in geology
in 1954 and a Ph.D. degree in geochemistry in 1957. He was a
graduate teaching assistant at the university from 1954 to 1957, and
after receiving his doctorate worked as a geochemist and supervisor of
geochemical research for Imperial Oil Ltd. in Calgary, Alberta, Canada,
from 1957 to 1965.
He joined the Institution staff as an associate scientist in the
Chemistry and Geology Department in November 1965, hired by the chair
of the department, John Hunt, shortly before the departments were
reorganized at WHOI into a Chemistry Department and a Geology and
Geophysics Department. He was appointed a senior scientist in
1971, and served as
Chemistry Department chair from 1974 to 1978, continuing the process
begun by John Hunt to build the department into a world recognized
marine chemistry and chemical oceanography research and education
department. During the 1970s he advised three graduate students, William Fitzgerald, James Murray and Mike Bacon.
In August 1978 Derek was appointed
Associate Director for Research, succeeding Ferris Webster, who left
the Institution to assume a position at NOAA, and he worked closely
through the 1980s with Director John Steele. In
June 1987 he was appointed to the newly created position of Associate
Director for Interdepartmental
Research, and Bob Gagosian was appointed Associate
Director for Research. In August 1989 Derek decided to return to
science in the Chemistry Department, and in 1991 he retired from WHOI
and was named a Scientist Emeritus.
During his WHOI career he worked closely with Buck Ketchum, Peter
Brewer and Peter Sachs, Fred Sayles, Bill Jenkins, Judy McDowell, Mike
Bacon, John Farrington and many others as his research interests
widened to include particulate matter in the oceans and ocean waste
management issues. Although his early career was focused on mineralogy
and petroleum geology, much of his scientific research career was
centered on the Geochemical Ocean Section Study (GEOSECS), an
International Decade for Ocean Exploration project supported by the
National Science Foundation that took place in the early 1970s. He
served as chief scientist for four of the 24 GEOSECS voyages in the
Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans.
His research interests included the distribution of chemical species in
seawater, mathematical modeling and statistical techniques for use in
geochemical problems, and factors controlling element distribution in
sediments. He was the author or co-author of about 70 scientific
publications in geology and geochemistry, and he served as a consulting
editor in oceanography for the McGraw-Hill Encyclopedia of Science and
Technology from 1979 to 1982.
Colleagues note his ability to go to the heart of a problem and his
tenacity to stick to the job until he got an answer. Fomer Director John Steele noted that Derek “was an excellent administrator combining
an ability to
coordinate diverse interests and activities, with very definite ideas
on
the direction of the Institution.” When he
returned to science after more than a decade in the administration,
Derek spent considerable time assisting and guiding younger scientists,
offering to read and comment on manuscripts or proposals, helping with
computer programs and issues, and sharing his knowledge with anyone who
knocked on his door. He was, as one Chemistry Department
colleague noted, “a good leader, wise counselor, and excellent
colleague.”
He was active in many professional societies and organizations,
including the Geochemical Society, American Geophysical Union, American
Association for the Advancement of Science, American Association of
Petroleum Geologists, and the Alberta Society of Petroleum
Geologists. He served on many national and international
committees, including the Ocean Sciences Board of the National Academy
of Sciences, as a member of the Geochemical Ocean Section Study
(GEOSECS) scientific advisory committee and executive committee, the
Controlled Ecosystem Pollution Experiment (CEPEX) Steering Committee,
and as a member and chair of the University-National Oceanographic
Laboratory System (UNOLS). He was also a member of the National
Science Foundation’s Advisory Committee for Ocean Sciences, and the
Advisory Committee to the Scientific Computing Division of the National
Center for Atmospheric Research.
Derek moved to Lebanon, Indiana in 1992 shortly after his retirement from WHOI
to be closer to his family, and in 2001 moved to Tucson, Arizona.
Survivors include his wife, Ann Spencer of Tucson, AZ; two sons,
Roger Spencer of Phoenix, AZ and Andrew Spencer of Boise, Idaho; a
daughter, Caroline Boyer of Sheridan, Indiana; and seven
grandchildren.
Funeral services are private. Memorial donations may be made to Woods
Hole Oceanographic Institution, Fenno MS#40, Woods Hole, MA 02543.
A celebration of life will be held July 10, 2006 from 5 to 7 p.m. on
the terrace of Fenno on the Quissett Campus of Woods Hole Oceanographic
Institution.
