Spencer E.J. Gordon

(Bearbeiten)

Biografie:
E. J. Gordon Spencer (1889 – 1963)
Gordon Spencer, a Club member not often seen in London, died on August 14, 1963, at the age of seventy-four, following an accident on the last day of the summer term at the Lyceum Alpinum at Zuoz in the Engadine. He had been connected with the School for forty years and, among other responsibilities, taught the last-year students Art Appreciation, in which field he was not only widely knowledgeable but had the rare gift of being able to impart his knowledge and enthusiasm to his pupils.
He was, however, best loved and remembered by generations of the School's staff and old boys as the 'perfect gentleman' who, by sheer drive and enthusiasm organised the games and general . outlook of a Swiss school on English lines, introducing and fostering, throughout the long years of his service at Zuoz, hockey, fives and even cricket. The story of how at the outset, for want of funds, the grounds had to be hewn out of the stony hill slopes by willing helpers under his lead and guidance, is told in a special memorial number of the school journal. Spencer would no doubt have enjoyed hugely the following comment from a tribute rendered by one of those early assistants: 'after all, we could see the cross-bar of the goal at the other end when the ground was finished!'
Above all, he impressed on all who came in contact with him the value, not only on the playing field but elsewhere in every facet of life, of 'playing the game for the game's sake'. And wherever old boys of the Lyceum have met in distant corners of the world, the talk has inevitably turned with affection to' our Mr. Spencer' generally known as'' Bones - whose teachings and influence none of them would ever forget .
Even before his death it had already been planned to mark his forty years' service by allotting certain funds to the building of a fives court bearing his name 'that would be the nicest present of my life' had been his reaction to .the proposal. A memorial fund has now been started by the Old Boys' organisation and the Foundation of the Lyceum jointly, with a view to commemorating Gordon Spencer and his work by one or more courts and, if the appeal meets with the response widely expected, by books for the school library and instruments for the scientific laboratories.
Spencer became a member of the Alpine Club in February, 1946, having discovered the joys of vertical as opposed to horizontal pitches comparatively late in life. During the 1940's he climbed the Matterhorn and other high peaks around Zermatt, and also in the Oberland. His real haunts were mainly in his beloved Engadine, where skiing had earlier been his chief mountain activity; and in due course he had achieved an Honorary Swiss Ski Instructor's certificate.
Almost all his life was spent abroad, mainly in Switzerland, and there is no doubt about the regard and affection felt for him by all who came in touch with him and his life's work in that country, above all at Zuoz.
H. A. Meyer.
Quelle: Alpine Journal Volume 69, 1964, Seite 170-171


Geboren am:
1889
Gestorben am:
14.08.1963