Michael Spock

1933 - 2018

Michael Spock died peacefully December 7, 2018 surrounded by family and friends after a long illness. Spock was a visionary pioneer and innovator in the museum field, especially through his work at the Boston Children's Museum and the Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago. Under his direction and mentorship, he inspired generations of museum leaders internationally, transforming the practice, and redefining what a museum could be and whom museums should be for. Mike was known for his generous spirit, his principled, humanistic and supportive leadership, and for never losing his childlike wonderment and enthusiasm for the world around him.Michael was born in New York City on January 25, 1933, the first son of famed pediatrician, author and activist Dr. Benjamin Spock and Jane Cheney Spock. A dyslexic who struggled to read and write, Mike found refuge in the museums of New York City as places filled with objects and experiences where he could look and learn according to his own pace and curiosity without having to read. This childhood experience endowed him with a rare empathy for the challenges faced by disadvantaged people from all walks of life. Starting as a latchkey kid, he would spend his life avidly exploring every environment he encountered, a value he would impart to all of his descendents. Reared in the humanist progressive education tradition of the Fieldston School, Mike attended John C. Marshall High School in Rochester, Minnesota where he won the state backstroke championship in his junior year. Mike went on to Antioch College in Yellow Springs, Ohio, a college known for its progressive education traditions, but it was the coop program emphasizing practical education through work study in particular that attracted Mike. It was at Antioch that Mike would experience the two most pivotal events in his life: meeting his future wife and collaborator Judith Wood and taking his first museum job at the Dayton Museum of Natural History where Judy worked. Mike mastered exhibit design and cabinetmaking, married Judy in 1955, earned a BS in biology, and started a family in Yellow Springs before moving to Cambridge, Massachusetts to attend the graduate program at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. Before completing his graduate degree, Mike was hired as director of the then small Children's Museum in the Jamaica Plain neighborhood of Boston in 1962.An institution with a tradition of serving Boston school teachers since 1913, the Children's Museum was transformed under Mike's leadership into one of the nation's first interactive, child-centered museums. The ethic of learning-by-doing through accessible and engaging hands-on activities and exhibits expanded quickly to embrace pioneering projects of community outreach, multicultural exploration and collaboration, and experiential science and early childhood learning. During this time, Mike's team at the Children's Museum produced such groundbreaking exhibits as "We're Still Here" in collaboration with members of the Wampanoag tribe before other museums even considered including Native Americans in the telling of their own stories. "What If You Couldn't" was a pioneering exhibit on living with disabilities for children and "Playspace" was an exhibit designed especially for families with toddlers. An ongoing relationship with Boston's sister city Kyoto, Japan, fostered by Spock, led to the relocation of an entire 19th century townhouse from Kyoto to Boston. Innovations extended to retail operations including stores priced for a kid's budget and selling recycled materials. In 1981, Spock led the move of the Children's Museum to downtown Boston where it contributed to the redevelopment of the waterfront as a cultural destination.In 1983, Mike's second son Peter took his own life at the age of 22. After this tragedy, Mike's life and career took on a new sense of urgency and purpose. He accepted the position of public programs director at Chicago's Field Museum of Natural History, starting in 1986 where, among other projects, he and his team redesigned the ancient Egyptian, Africa, Pacific, animal and evolution galleries. Through these projects, Mike and Judy traveled the world together. Upon leaving the Field Museum in 1994, Spock remained in Chicago, a city he loved with characteristic passion. He became a fellow at University of Chicago's Chapin Hall Center for Children and served as a consultant on museum projects. He suffered a stroke in 2001, but bounced back quickly, staying productive for more than a decade afterwards. His final project was "Boston Stories," a book and website chronicling the groundbreaking work of the Boston Children's Museum (http://www.bcmstories.com). After leaving Chapin Hall, he maintained an office at the Chicago History Museum throughout his retirement where he enjoyed the companionship of his colleagues, many of whom had worked with him at the Field Museum.Michael is survived by his wife Judith Wood Spock of Chicago, son Daniel Spock and wife Lisa First of Charlotte, daughter Susannah Spock of Port Angeles, granddaughter Nadia Spock of Chicago, and brother John Spock of Los Angeles as well as by many nieces, nephews and their children. He is predeceased by his father Dr. Benjamin Spock, his mother Jane Spock and his son Peter Spock. Contributions in his memory can be made to Antioch College.