Ian J. Spence

Ian J. Spence, M.D. passed away on April 19, 2024. Ian was born in Jamaica, West Indies to missionary parents, Mary McKnight Spence and George Muller Spence, who was a British citizen, on August 12, 1933. In 1937, he immigrated to the United States through Ellis Island. Dr. Spence was raised in Scranton, PA and Albany, NY. He graduated from Albany High School in 1951 and Union College in 1955. He then received his M.D. from Albany Medical College in 1959. He interned at the U.S. Public Health Service Hospital in Baltimore, Maryland in 1959-60. He was a Clinical Associate at the National Institutes of Health while completing a two-year general surgery program at the U.S. Public Service Hospital in Baltimore, MD. Thereafter, he completed his residency in urology at the University of Maryland Hospital from 1962-65. He then returned to the National Institutes of Health as a urologist in the Surgery Branch of the National Cancer Institute from 1965-66. Subsequently, he entered the private practice of urology, and he later founded Foxhall Urology.

Dr. Spence was a dedicated urologist. Along with a general surgeon, Dr. Spence introduced kidney transplantation to the Washington, DC area in the early 1970's. He was a member of the Board of Trustees of The Washington Hospital Center where he also served as Vice President of the Medical Staff. He was also a member of the medical staff at Georgetown University Hospital and Sibley Memorial Hospital. In addition, he served as a Clinical Professor of Urology at Georgetown University for much of his career and in that capacity trained many urologists. Dr. Spence was a past president of The Osler Society, The Clinical Pathological Society, and the Mid-Atlantic Section of the American Urological Association.

Following his retirement from Foxhall Urology in 2006, Dr. Spence worked part-time in the Department of Urology at the Veteran's Affairs Hospital in Washington, DC. He also volunteered at the Mercy Health Clinic in Gaithersburg, MD. He was a member of Congressional Country Club and a former member of the Cosmos Club. His avocations included fly fishing and golf.

Survivors include his beloved wife of sixty-six years Barbara Tomlinson Spence of Bethesda, MD; children: Andrew J. Spence (Corinna Gilfillan), Alexander W. Spence (Mary), and Nancy J. Spence, grandchildren, Evelyn, Devin, and Grady, and his sister, Elizabeth M. Spence. He is predeceased by a daughter Suzanne and a brother, Edwin. Arrangements private.