Donor Spotlight

Charlie’s relationship with Hampton Roads Academy is long and deep and dates back to when he was asked to join the Board of Trustees by Joe Carpenter and Russell Buxton. That was in 1978, when his son Tripp (‘80) was a student and before his son Ned (‘85) was enrolled in HRA. Charlie would go on to serve 11 years on the Board, two of those years as Chair, during which term he approved the motion to limit Board terms, thereby getting himself off the Board. Tripp and Ned would graduate - and would eventually send all four of their children to HRA, Charlie (‘10), Wave (‘14), Scott (‘19) and Noelle (‘21). HRA’s Charles R. Spencer, Jr. Gymnasium is named after Charlie and the Anne Doug Spencer Commons after his late wife. A Foreign Language room is named in honor of Tripp and Ned. Charlie is a member of HRA’s Heritage Society, having made provisions for HRA in his estate plans. 

Today, Charlie is a Senior Vice President, Financial Advisor, Senior Portfolio Manager with Morgan Stanley in Newport News, VA and the senior member of The Spencer Group, working side by side with his sons. He is an active member of the community having served as past president of the Newport News Rotary Club, and on the Boards of the Newport News Family YMCA and the Peninsula Metropolitan YMCA. He is also past chairman of the investment committee for the Newport News Employees Retirement board as well as past chairman of the board itself. He has served on the endowment committees of Hampton Roads Academy, the YMCA, The Virginia Living Museum, and Christopher Newport University. He is also a member and elder of Hidenwood Presbyterian Church.
 
Charlie caught up with us recently, shortly after returning from a long-standing annual skiing trip with four friends in Colorado. This year’s trip turned eventful when he took a bad spill and cracked his collar bone. At age 83, Charlie skis old school, on long skis (199 cm), going for speed. Typically, he doesn’t do bumps, but it was a bump that took him out this time. He also contracted Covid-19. One of his ski buddies tested positive soon after their trip and Charlie had a cough and a fever on his return. He subsequently tested positive for the antibodies. 

Why do you Support HRA? 
I believe that education is the single most important gift you can give a person. Many of the world’s problems can be solved through education, which gives us the ability to reason with one another. My mother was an educator. In fact, she home schooled me for the first half of First Grade until I was old enough to go to public school  - I missed the cut-off date by five days. I was fortunate that my parents let me go to private school when I reached high school. Growing up in Lynchburg, I was a day student at Virginia Episcopal School and went on from there to Washington and Lee University for three years and then to Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute for two years. I actually graduated from each school on the same day in 1959. Because I was well prepared for college at VES, I did not find the college curriculum particularly difficult, helping establish my belief in the power of independent school education. My sons followed a similar path, both graduating from W&L, Tripp going on to earn an MBA at William and Mary, and Ned an MA in Architecture from Virginia Tech. 

You recently made a very generous gift to HRA’s unrestricted Endowment Fund. What motivated you to make that gift? 
I have had experience working on Endowment Boards and know how important it is to raise money for them, to provide a legacy for the future. Raising money for bricks and mortar is easier, where donors have something they can see in return for their gift. I may never know how my gift to the Endowment Fund is used, but I wanted to do something to help secure the future of the school for generations of HRA students to come. 

What do you love about what you do? 
In a word, relationships. In the brokerage business, it is very satisfying working with the same people year after year. Developing trust is rewarding and something that takes time to build and yet can be destroyed in a minute. My old boss started every meeting with a saying: “Don’t get any chalk on your shoes.” Like an athlete on the playing field, stay well within the field of play and don’t even get close to breaking a rule. 
Working in the brokerage business wasn’t ever on my radar. I was tricked into it by a friend, with whom I shared a rooming house in Richmond. At the time, I was working as an engineer in the Research and Development Department at Reynolds Metals. At his suggestion that I join this nascent brokerage firm in Newport News, I remember saying “Absolutely not - I’m not going to fritter away my education.” My friend convinced me to visit him in Suffolk and ambushed me with a “spontaneous” meeting with Chip Mason, President of Mason and Co. in Newport News. I could see immediately that Chip had qualities I really respected and the opportunity to join a firm in its infancy had a certain appeal. Having sought my father’s blessing - he had after all provided for my education - I joined Mason and Co. on April 15, 1963 - tax day - as its seventh employee. My broker number was 007 making me 007 before James Bond was 007. 
Giving up my secure engineering position at Reynolds to join a little-known brokerage company turned out to be a high risk/high reward situation. I got in on the ground floor, and through a series of mergers over the decades, Mason & Co. became Morgan Stanley by way of Legg Mason, Citigroup, Smith Barney, and Morgan Stanley Smith Barney. 

What has been your Greatest Surprise in Life? 
My greatest surprise is that my sons would want to work with me. I never suggested that they join me. I think they could see how much I enjoyed the business and that I was proof that you could make a living from something you love doing. It is also my greatest pleasure that we are able to work so well together as a team. 
I give my late wife Anne all the credit for doing such a great job bringing up my children. Though I do take some small amount of credit for not messing it up. We met when she was fourteen and I was fifteen, and we married in 1960. Anne was the greatest human being, with the uncanny ability to concentrate her whole attention on you. She was the most caring person I have ever known and I am most fortunate that she cared about me.



“Donor Spotlight” is a new feature in which we tell the stories, (in no particular order), of some of HRA’s dedicated donors.