James Walter Spencer
James Walter Spencer completed his final orbit on planet earth and launched into eternity on May 27, 2022. James was born on May 18, 1936, in Jackson, Mississippi. He was a graduate of Mississippi College, marrying the love of his life, Jessie Dee McCrory, on the same day that he graduated. He considered marrying Jessie his greatest achievement. With his math degree in hand, the couple moved to Hampton, Virginia, where James went to work in the space program as a computer programmer at Langley AFB. In those days, computer programming was done with switches in binary. James would say that he would wake up in the middle of the night and say, “that one should be a zero”, and when he went in the next day and flipped the switch, the program would run. In 1957, their first child was born, James Walter, Jr, of which the doctor said, “your little sputnik has arrived”. With the Mercury program in full swing, the young family moved to Huntsville, Alabama, to work at the NASA Redstone Arsenal. It was in Huntsville that their second son, Phillip Lee, was born. From there, the family relocated to Titusville, Florida, where James took a new position at the Kennedy Space Center, remaining there for the Gemini and Apollo missions. Among the many programs that James wrote while at KSC, was a trajectory projection program, which management had decided could not be written. James asked for a shot at writing the program and not only was he able to create a working version, but it remained in use throughout the entire Apollo program and was a key tool for NASA during launches.
With the conclusion of the Apollo program, James shifted to academia, assuming the Director of Computing
position, first at The University of Toledo, and then at The Florida State University.
While he excelled at his career, he also excelled at being a devoted husband and father. James coached many of the boy’s little league teams, was active as a counselor and chaperone on numerous church trips and retreats, and enjoyed traveling to places around the country with the family. He was a devout Christian, a member of First Baptist Church, Mount Dora, FL, having served as a deacon for several years. James was a Sunday School teacher and enjoyed singing in the choir for many years. He loved the Lord, Jesus Christ, with all his heart, soul,
and strength.
He was an avid golfer and sports enthusiast who loved the Cleveland Indians and the Cleveland Browns. His favorite players on the Indians were Lou Boudreau, Al Rosen and Bob Feller. His favorite player on the Browns was Jim Brown. His favorite NBA player was Rick Barry of the Golden State Warriors.
James is survived by his wife of 66 years, Jessie M. Spencer, his sons, James Walter, Jr. (Donna), Phillip Lee (Jody), his brother Thomas Fred (Jenny), grandchildren Holly (Joey) Simmons, Donielle (Ryan) Goodson, Doug, Caleb, Ross, Seth (Hannah), Nathanael, Gabriel, Luke, John, and great-grandchildren Raylen Goodson, Joanna Simmons, and Kendrick Goodson.
Services will be held on Wednesday, June 1, at the First Baptist Church of Mount Dora, at 11am.
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