Meet Mary Spencer, GU Class of '45, thrilled to return to her alma mater

Published: January 12, 2022

Meet Mary Spencer, GU Class of '45, thrilled to return to her alma mater

Nearly 77 years after she graduated from Greenville College, Mary (Short ’45) Spencer (with GU President Suzanne Davis, at left) returned to campus in late October to witness the inauguration of the school’s first woman president.

Mary said the event was significant enough that it merited a trip from her home in Green Valley, Ariz.

“I think President Davis will be a good leader for the school,” she said. “I pray that she will be blessed with strength and wisdom.”

Mary, 97, is particularly encouraged by the emphasis Davis has placed on spiritual growth among students.

“It’s important for the students to grow spiritually during their college years,” she said. “That’s when they build their spiritual foundation, and we should encourage that growth. We need to nudge each other along that way.”

Spiritual formation, a GU hallmark

Mary felt that nudge while she was a student here from 1943 to 1945, pursuing a double major in chemistry and biology .

“We had a prayer fellowship on our dorm hall on the fourth floor of Hogue Hall,” the South Dakota native recalled. “We would pray together and encourage each other. And many of us worshiped together at the Free Methodist Church.

“I was surrounded by good friends, and they were people of good Christian character.”

One of those people was Ed Spencer, a 1944 Greenville College graduate. After completing his degree, he was asked to stay another year and teach chemistry and astronomy. Mary was a senior student in his astronomy class, and soon they both were seeing stars. By the spring of 1945, she had a diploma and a ring.

She also had decided to pursue advanced training in nursing at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Md., while Ed went to medical school in Chicago.

Alaska: Adventure, then home

“My first months of nursing training was all clinical,” Mary said. “My Greenville education prepared me well, and I could keep up with the other students.”

By the spring of 1948, she had completed a bachelor’s in nursing at Johns Hopkins and she moved back to the Midwest. She and Ed were married later that year.

Ed’s medical internship took them to Seattle, and Mary continued her nursing career there. In time, Ed eyed something a little farther north – Alaska.

In all, they lived in Alaska for 38 years – mostly in Sitka, but also in Palmer for a time. For many of those years, Mary served as a nurse in Ed’s practice.

The Spencers had five children – two boys and three girls. Those children have given them 10 grandchildren and 29 great-grandchildren.

Ed passed away about 15 years ago at the age of 86. He and Mary had been married 57 years at the time of his death.

77 years since graduation and still fond of GU

Since 2013, Mary (at right) has lived with her oldest daughter, Sarah, in Arizona.

In addition to attending President Davis’ inauguration, Mary’s recent visit to Greenville allowed her to see the GU campus for the first time in nearly a quarter of a century.

“I wanted to see what changes had taken place on campus,” she said.

Plus, she wanted to encourage President Davis to keep the school’s distinctive Christian heritage as a priority during her administration. It was Mary’s way of passing on the “spiritual nudge” she experienced as an undergraduate student 77 years ago.

Meet Mary Spencer, GU Class of '45, thrilled to return to her alma mater

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