Volunteer Spotlight: Spencer Anderson

Editor’s Note: This article also appears in the STPS 2025 Fall Edition Turtle Times Newsletter (see page 20).

Meet another volunteer extraordinaire! Spencer’s been part of our Stranding & Salvage team for six years, been a Hotline Monitor for four years, and has done Transports for two. He and his second wife Kristi joined STPS in 2016 after Spencer met STPS Chair Roger Pszonowsky while volunteering at the Brevard Zoo’s Sea Turtle Healing Center. Spencer worked and volunteered at the zoo for 15 years conducting kayak tours, education classes, overnight experiences, and night hikes. Kristi also volunteered for STPS until 2023 doing Night Walks and Nesting Surveys.

In addition to volunteering, Spencer’s an avid sailor. Growing up in Baltimore, he fell in love with sailing when he was a teenager and bought his first sailboat as soon as he graduated from college. While living in Maryland, he taught advanced sailing courses at the Annapolis Sailing School and week-long sailing classes in Chesapeake Bay for the YMCA.

In 1981, Spencer and his first wife Carolyn moved to Florida with their three daughters. He worked for McDonnell Douglas as a Launch Site Support Engineer for three NASA Space Shuttle missions (Magellan, Galileo, and Ulysses). He also worked at NOAA and was Program Manager for the first temperature and humidity sensing instrument flown in space. Sadly, Carolyn died of cancer in 1999. Then, in 2002, he retired, but never slowed down.

He loves boating in Florida. For three years, he served on Florida FWC’s Boating Advisory Council. He’s also been a member of the US Power Squadrons for 48 years and is currently Chairman of two of their committees plus Chairman of Registration for National Meetings. Always willing to share his expertise, he teaches a classroom boating course every year for their Sebastian Islet club. Previously, he taught an on-the-water boating course at several different squadrons throughout Florida. He estimates that he’s sailed approximately 40,000 miles!

Spencer and Kristi have been married for 22 years and he has seven grandkids and two great-grandkids. One of their favorite family memories is the wedding of his eldest daughter Belinda on their Ericson Cruising 36 sailboat (shown above). The ceremony took place at Dragon Point at the tip of Merritt Island just north of Eau Gallie Causeway. What a great way to tie the knot!