Miami County, Ohio Genealogical Researchers -- Sponsored by the Computerized Heritage Association


    LESTER ROBERT SPENCER

    Lester Robert Spencer. To the man of ordinary success the varied and substantial results achieved by Lester Robert Spencer seem out of all proportion to his brief tenure of life and in no wise remarkable advantages or opportunities. Richly endowed with the qualities of initiative and resource, concentration and enthusiasm, and with his native city of Piqua as the setting of his ambitions, he rose to high position in public confidence and service, and his death, which occurred November 7, 1919, was accounted a distinct loss to his community. Mr. Spencer was born at Piqua, Ohio, November 19, 1884, a son of M. G. and Mary Elizabeth (Mitchell) Spencer, the father being a dry goods merchant at Piqua, who was also for a number of years engaged in the grain and lumber business. There were two sons in the family: John M., who is identified with the Hobart Manufacturing Company, of Troy, Ohio, and Lester Robert. Lester R. Spencer attended the public schools of, Piqua, and as a young man was connected with the Troy Carriage Sunshade Company, as a salesman, a capacity in which he achieved an immediate and distinctive success. Coming to Piqua, he entered the grain business in association with his uncle, Daniel Spencer, and that connection was maintained for some time, the firm conducting elevators in Miami county and the surrounding community. Retiring from that business in November, 1916, Mr. Spencer entered the service of the United States Department of Agriculture, in the grain department, and at various times thereafter was stationed at New York, Washington and Chicago. He was chosen by the Government as a "dollar-a-year" man, and the services which he rendered his country during the period of the great World war were valuable in the extreme. Later, Mr. Spencer became identified with the Troy Metal Products Company, located at Cincinnati, Ohio, which was engaged in making war appliances and was a subsidiary company of the Hobart Manufacturing Company. He was identified as one of the principal factors of this concern at the time of his death. He left hosts of friends in business official circles and among his fellow members in Masonry, the Piqua Club and the Rotarians. He was a devout member of the Presbyterian church of Piqua of which he was a member of the board of trustees, and funeral services were conducted there, interment being made at Forest Hill Cemetery. Mr. Spencer was essentially a strong character, and, for a man of his years, had broad and varied experience and had achieved a notable success. November 22, 1911, Mr. Spencer married Catherine, daughter of C. W. and Jane (Light) DeArmon, and granddaughter of Joseph Light, the well-known and representative citizen of Dayton. C. W. DeArmon was an official of the Artificial Gas & Light Company, and he and his wife were the parents of four children: Eugene, Catherine, Rutherford and Elizabeth, of whom Eugene is deceased. Mr. and Mrs. Spencer became the parents of one daughter, Jane Light, who was born in 1912, and who is now attending the public schools of Piqua.

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