Known as Win, he was born in Kinsley, Kansas, son of Earl Winfield Spencer Sr., a socially prominent Chicago stockbroker, and the former Agnes Lucy Hughes of Jersey. He attended Racine College in Racine, Wisconsin. He graduated from the United States Naval Academy in 1910 and in 1917 was sent to San Diego with instructions to set up a permanent naval air station, which was to be used for training exercises, and he became its first commanding officer.
Personal life
Spencer was married five times. Four of his wives were:
Mariam J. Maze the former wife of Albert Cressey Maze. She was the former Miriam Ham, daughter of George and Katie Anastasia Ham of Portland, Oregon. They married in September 1928 and were divorced in 1936, the same year Spencer was made a Knight of the Order of the Crown of Italy by Benito Mussolini. By this marriage he had one stepson, Robert Claude Maze Sr., Major, USMC. Mariam Spencer married, in 1939, as her third husband, Arthur William Radford, Vice Admiral, USN, future Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
Norma Reese Johnson, the widow of Homer Sturtevant Johnson, a Detroit manufacturer who died in 1928, and a daughter of Carl Reese, of Detroit, Michigan. Spencer and Johnson were married in Los Angeles, California, on July 4, 1937. By this marriage he had two stepdaughters: Betty L. Johnson, an actress and songwriter and Kathryne Johnson. The Spencers' wedding was a double wedding with Betty and Peyton Legare, whose wedding in February 1942 in Tijuana, Mexico, was not valid under California law and needed to be resolemnized. The couple separated on February 9, 1940, and were divorced later that year in Santa Monica, California. Both parties charged cruelty, and Norma declared that her husband was plagued by what The New York Times's announcement of their acrimonious divorce delicately called "habitual intemperance." Time magazine reported, "During a stormy session of accusations and counteraccusations Navyman Spencer, charged with cruelty and habitual intemperance, testified that his weekly liquor bill was only about $10, that his wife 'drank as much of it as I did.'"
Lillian Phillips, daughter of Robert A. and Ella Burgess Phillips, whom he married October 2, 1941.
He was portrayed by actor Ryan Hayward in W.E., the 2011 British romantic drama film about the love of Wallis and King Edward VIII co-written and directed by Madonna.
