Uncle Spencer, getting ready to marry Jim (to Ducky), 1998Our dear uncle Spence, Spencer Conrad Boise, passed away earlier this month.

This is a personal blog post: a chance to say, for the record, a little of what this wonderful man meant to me, and to us. Those of you who are here for i18n or technology stuff, we’ll get back to that next time.

When we family gathered to pay our respects, it was one of those bittersweet occasions — wonderful to see everyone, terrible about the reason; a sad event, but then, when a good person leads a long and happy life and has a quick and peaceful death, a happier outcome than others we could imagine.

When I was a young child growing up near Cincinnati, Ohio, Spencer and his inseparable wife Marty, and their five children, lived right next door to us. It gave our families a close bond, which persists to this day. In fact, soon after I met Ducky and we took our first road trip together, it was to visit Spence and Marty, and some of their kids, in Santa Barbara.

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