Dr. Thomas Dale Spencer

I worked with Tom while he was chief of staff to President Woo and I was the Director at the Romberg Tiburon Center. While Tom was not a marine scientist, he took on the role of promoting and fighting to keep the Center going during some difficult times. He become a great friend during that period by advising me how use psychology to win over opponents. Tom and Gloria were the life of the party. They were always fun to be with and were welcoming to new and old faculty at SFSU and did...

I too have just learned about Tom 's passing away. I am from UK and first met him when passing a year 1978-79 as a Fulbright Visiting Professor at San Francisco State and we become very good friends. For several tears I taught on the Psychology Summer school programme and we shared many a happy time chatting and having a drink together after classes. More importantly, we passed many happy hours at weekends hiking trails in California, most memorably very many in Yosemite. Gloria was also...

I just learned of Dr. Spencer's passing. I want to add my deepest condolences to his family and say a word about how important Tom Spencer was to me. He hired me for the secretarial job I held at San Francisco State University for 30 years. He was quite strict about the way he ran our office--The President's Office--but was also a supportive and kind mentor. Both he and Gloria were kind, funny and dedicated, and Tom's influence made the scope of my first few years on the job very rich and...

We are saddened by Tom's passing Our lives were richer having known Gloria and him.

There I was, 26 years old, tentatively stepping back into college after having flunked out five years earlier. I had only the vaguest idea of what to do with my life. Then I took Tom´s Psychology 101 course. Clear, concise, humorous, data-based teaching drew me inexorably to the answer: I was going to be a psychologist. I took every course he taught. We became friends while I was still at SFSU. He worried that he was spending too much to buy their lovely Mill Valley home and laughed years...

We fondly remember our Tahiti trip with Tom and Gloria and members of SFSU.

I know many people are deeply affected by this loss. Tom was the most important man in my life. I think about him every day. As sad as I am to hear of his passing, I know that I am blessed with having been taken under his wing and guidance. Best of wishes to his children and grandchildren.

Our hearts go out to Tom and Gloria's family as they grieve the loss of their parents, grandparents, and great-grandparents. I (Carol) grew up with Tom, since birth. Our families lived in the same 3 apartment home at the time of our births, and I have several treasured pictures of Tom and me, at around the age 2, running through the back yard in our winter coats and hats, having the time of our lives. We met again in high school (my family had moved elsewhere when we were about 3) and...