Richard Dee Spence

1925 - 2015

SPENCE Richard Dee Spence passed away peacefully on his 90th birthday, April 7, 2015 in Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida. Richard was born in Tucumcari, New Mexico to Andrew Doak Spence and Myrtle Hannah Roach Spence on April 7, 1925. He was a WWII veteran with the USN, 1943-1946 and attended the Officers Training Program at Princeton University. He received a Bachelor of Science Degree from UCLA in 1949. He was a graduate of Transportation Management Program at Stanford University in 1956 and a graduate of the Senior Executives Program at MIT in 1962. He was employed by The Southern Pacific Transportation Company, San Francisco, 1946-1975, Assistant Vice President of Operations, 1967-1969, Vice President of Operations, 1969-1975; President, Chief Executive Officer of Consolidated Rail Corporation, Philadelphia, 1975-1978; last standing President of the Louisville & Nashville Railroad Company, Louisville, 1978-1980; Executive Vice President of Operations, Family Lines Rail System, 1980-1984; Consultant in the Field, 1984-1990; Director and Principal of Skippingdale Paper Products, Scunthorpe, England,1986-1997. His memberships included the Phi Kappa Sigma Fraternity, Ponte Vedra Inn & Club, Founder member of TPC Sawgrass, Sawgrass Country Club, Bohemian Club and Golf House Club of Elie (Scotland). As accomplished a career as his roles suggest, his role as a loving husband and father was what he was most proud of. His surviving family and friends will cherish their memories of him and will remember in particular his sharp witted humor, his charming demeanor, a gentle and kind heart inside a tough exterior, and of course his great jitterbug dance moves. Richard is predeceased by his mother and father, his three brothers and a sister. He is survived by two children from a previous marriage, Diana Dee Spence and Richard Neill Spence; his loving wife, Mary Ames Spence; daughter, Mary Spence Minchew (Harrison) and her two children, Katherine Liston Berline (Zachary) and Connor Spence Liston, and daughter, Ames Spence Kohn (Thomas), all of Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida; son, Richard Todd Spence (Nicola) and his two children, Olivia Dorothy Spence and MacIntyre Todd Spence of Swanland, England. He is most recently survived by his great-granddaughter, Ames Scott Berline of Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida. There will be a private family gathering at Christ Episcopal Church Memorial Garden, Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida 32082. If you wish to contribute a memorial gift, please consider The Christ Episcopal Church Foundation, 400 San Juan Drive, Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida 32082 or the Community Hospice Foundation, 4266 Sunbeam Road, Jacksonville, Florida 32257. Please visit our online Tribute at www.quinn-shalz.com. Services under the direction and care of Quinn-Shalz Family Funeral Home Please Sign the Guestbook @ Jacksonville.com