Robert Spencer's life marked by stewardship of our lands

The Perry County Soil and Water Conservation District will hold its 67th annual meeting and dinner Monday, Jan. 9 at Sunfield United Methodist Church Fellowship Hall.

In lieu of the traditional entertainment, there will be a reflection of Robert L. Spencer's service to Perry County landowners. Spencer retired Jan. 2 after nearly 39 years with the SWCD, just under 38 of those years in Perry County.

In addition to his professional service, Spencer has served on numerous city, county, state and federal boards and committees over the years.

He was a member of the original land use planning committee for Pinckneyville and the land use planning committee for Perry County. The county was the first to pass zoning laws and Spencer is a member of the Zoning Board, as well as a member of the Subdivision committee.

Spencer successfully spear-headed the project to use a donation from a disabled veteran as the matching portion of a grant to install a handicapped fishing pier at City Lake.

Over the years, he's been both the President and Vice President of the Five Star Industries Board, coached Optimist Club baseball teams and is still the Chairman of the 708 Mental Health Board.

"I've worked with every City Council and every County Board since 1977," Spencer said.

He also served on the State Civil Rights Committee and the Black Emphasis Committee as a program manager.

Spencer and his wife, Bernice, have three children-- Daniel, Melissa and Kimberly and three grandchildren-- Aliyah, Kendal and Alyssa. Daniel works for Perry County Counseling Center, Melissa is a Counselor with Social Services and Kimberly is the Marketing Director for Carbondale Rehab and Health Center 1 & 2.

Early Years

Spencer is a life-long farmer and small-town resident. He grew up in the small town of Whiteville, Tenn. where he went to live with his adoptive family at age four. The adoption went through when he was in junior high school. Spencer said he maintains a good relationship with both his biological and adoptive families. Both families were farmers.

He has no adoptive siblings, but has a biological brother and sister, still living in Tennessee.

His adoptive father lived through the Great Depression and never modernized the farm. He was unwilling to go into debt for any reason.

As a result, Spencer spent his youth farming with two teams of mules. As he got older, he did most of the farming after the crops were in.

While in high school, he told his father he planned to farm. His father pointed out that Spencer owned no land and no equipment then asked how he planned to acquire those to become a farmer. Spencer decided on the spot that he'd probably better go to school.

Right out of high school, Spencer worked at the Natural Resource Conservation Service in Bolivar, Tenn. He was employed with the stipulation that he major in agronomy in college.

He majored in Plant Science at Tennessee State University in Nashville, Tenn., earning a Bachelor of Science in 1974. During the summers, Spencer worked with the Soil Conservation Service in Springfield and Lincoln, Ill. He saved his money and supplemented that income by working in the dairy barn milling cows during the school year. He also served as the Assistant Director of the Wesley Foundation which is associated with the United Methodist Church. As the Asst. Director, he was able to live there free of charge.

As he was planning to leave school with his BS degree, a professor offered him an Assistantship which paid for his graduate school tuition. He continued to serve as the Asst. Director of the Wesley Foundation and continued to live there free of charge. His Master's degree in Ag Science with an emphasis in Plant Science was free.

His thesis was on the germination of peach seeds in vitro. The professor who offered him the assistantship developed two peach trees, one of which was named for the daughter of the Governor of Tennessee, Julie.

Spencer enjoyed his time in the big city, but is very clear that he much prefers small towns. In fact, as soon as he graduated, he headed for the small town of Murphysboro, Ill.

Professional

In June 1976, Spencer was hired by the USDA Soil Conservation Service in Jackson County. In August 1977, he was promoted to District Conservationist in Perry County. Shortly after he took over in Perry County, the government changed the designation from a G9 county to a G11 county.

The new designation reflected the increased difficulty in dealing with the four active coal mines in Perry County.

In addition to the mines, Perry County had no soil survey. Spencer worked with the County Board, the USDA and the Illinois Department of Agriculture to get a soil survey completed. The development agreement was very favorable for Perry County. The survey was necessary for reclamation work for mines.

Perry County appointed the Soil and Water Conservation Service Board to serve as the Land Reclamation Review Committee for Perry County.

"Then a new law was passed and something like 12 different agencies reviewed mine permits before they could issued by the County Board," Spencer said. His committee was one of many.

Over the years, Spencer worked with the City of Pinckneyville to do about $100,000 worth of erosion control work on the shoreline at City Lake.

Despite all the time devoted to working with local, state and federal governments, Spencer's main job was to help local farmers in Perry County to select and apply conservation practices such as no till farming, grass waterways, subsurface and surface draining and crop rotation.

"There was no typical day," Spencer said of his work. "One day I'd be writing contracts for different conservation programs and the next day I'd be surveying a farm."

Before recommending a conservation practice or writing a contract for it, Spencer had to walk the land in question with the farmer to determine what was needed.

There was a lot of annual training to be done to keep up on the latest changes in agriculture. Having begun farming with mules, Spencer said the best thing to happen to farming in the past 50 years is the technology that allows farmers to cultivate hundreds of acres per day. Cultivating with mules meant getting two or three acres done per day.

"There have been so many changes," Spencer said. He's a member of the Southern Illinois No Till Association. He's helped many farmers implement no-till farming and practices no-till farming with his family in Tennessee.

"We have no-till cotton, corn, soybeans and wheat," he said.

Spencer completed the USDA Leadership Development program, some post-graduate work at University of Illinois and was a member of the State Training Committee. Every summer through about 2007, Perry County hosted one or two trainees in the same program that brought Spencer to Lincoln and Springfield, Ill. during his college years.

Over the years, Spencer also was the acting District Conservationist in Washington County for 11 months and the Acting Assistant State Conservation for 26 counties in southern Illinois.

The Next Chapter

After many years of professional and civic service to Perry County and Illinois, Spencer is running for Mayor of Pinckneyville.

His campaign will focus on the positive.

"How many small towns have an airport, a new high school, a new soccer field, and the Thresherman's show which brings so many people to town," Spencer asks.

He'd like to help Pinckneyville make the most of its assets. When people look at a new place to live and work they check three things, Spencer said. Those things are medical services, education and safety. Pinckneyville is a leader in all three of those categories.

After those three things, the next issues are about convenience. How far will I have to drive to buy a new pair of pants? That's where Pinckneyville could use some improvement.

Spencer would like to make Pinckneyville self-sufficient. He says there's no reason you should have to leave town to buy clothing.

"We've got a nice store for general merchandise. I really have to commend Kellerman's Feed Store," Spencer said.

There are other areas that need improvement, as well.

"We have a high unemployment rate," he says. "We need more industries, but that won't happen overnight."

Spencer would like to market the Friendly Little City as a good place for smaller industries which will employ five to 35 people each.

It's unlikely Pinckneyville will get another industry to employ 350 people, he said. Smaller industries will be attracted to the community and could fulfill some of those conveniences.

"Change is inevitable," Spencer says. "Let's move forward."

As for his competition, Spencer has nothing but praise for Fran Thomas.

"I've worked with every city council for 38 years and Fran for 32 of those years," he says. "You wouldn't find a more knowledgeable person that Fran on city issues. She's a very intelligent lady."