Dr. Spencer Gordon Jr.

Spencer Gordon Jr, M.D., age 94, died peacefully at home surrounded by family on June 2, 2024. He was born March 27, 1930 to Spencer Gordon, Sr. and Mildred Larcom Jones Gordon. He is survived by his loving wife of 65 years Mary-Truxtun Hill Gordon, his three children Spencer Gordon, III (Mark McHugh), Helen Minifie Gordon, Thomas Truxtun Gordon (Ellen Gerety Gordon), as well as four grandchildren, Abigail, William, Alexander and Kathleen, and numerous nephews, nieces and cousins.

He was educated at Beauvoir, St Albans, St Paul's 1948 (summa cum laude), Princeton University 1952 (magna cum laude), and Harvard Medical School 1956 (cum laude). Service to his country was in the Public Health Service doing research for the NIH in Bethesda with medical training before and after completing his psychiatry residency at Strong Memorial Hospital in Rochester, NY in 1963. He met his wife on a blind date while working at the NIH. They are both 5th generation Washingtonians. He was a member of the University and Chevy Chase Clubs. Most of his career he was in private practice in Psychiatry and Psychoanalysis in Washington, but then also worked at the US Soldiers' and Airmen's Home as Director of the Alcohol Abuse Treatment Program and Deputy Director Mental Health Services. He concluded his career consulting in Langley.

Among other things he was Associate Clinical Professor, Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at George Washington University School of Medicine; President of the American Society of Physician Analysts, and Chairman of the CME committee for both the Washington Psychiatric Society (1976-1979,1981-1982) and AMA DC chapter (1980-1981). Later he served on his condominium board and landscaping committee.

He was a lifelong sailing enthusiast. He learned as a boy at Bass River on Cape Cod, on a Cat boat named the Pirate, and a Wianno Senior named the Pinafore. He was a lifelong learner inspiring a love of nature, history and learning in his children and grandchildren. Nature hikes and museum visits were a big part of weekends while raising children. Listening to birds, walking in the woods, reading and listening to books on tape gave him joy throughout his later life, as did time with his family, and time with his beloved wife.

He will be deeply missed by all who knew and loved him.

Services will be private. In lieu of flowers please enjoy time out of doors, or a good book or poem. If you would like to do more, donations can be made in Spencer's memory to Planned Parenthood of Washington DC, (Planned Parenthood of Metropolitan Washington, DC, Inc.), the Cathedral Choral Society of Washington, DC (cathedralchoralsociety.org ), or The Chesapeake Bay Foundation, (www.cbf.org ).