Stuart K Spencer

Stuart K Spencer who as one of the nation’s first political consultants for hire took a so-called B-list actor named Ronald Reagan and helped him become governor of California and later president of the United States. He died on Sunday January 12 2025 at his home in Palm Desert, Calif. He was 97. In his later years, he lamented the rise of President Donald J. Trump and what he called the disappearance of the Republican Party that he had spent his life building. Spencer and Bill Roberts founded the consulting firm Spencer-Roberts in 1960. He was born Stuart Murphy in Phoenix on Feb. 20, 1927. His father, he recalled, had a drinking problem and “walked out of our family and out of my life.” When his mother, Beulah, married A. Kenneth Spencer, a dentist and prominent Republican in Orange County, Calif., he was renamed Stuart Krieg Spencer. After graduating from high school in 1945, Stuart enlisted in the Navy. He earned a degree in 1951 from Los Angeles State College, now California State University, Los Angeles. Stuart Spencer continued to advise the company. His daughter, Dr. Karen Spencer, owned the firm. As lifelong Californians, Spencer-Roberts focused their efforts on policy issues affecting California. The Spencer family has been in California for six generations now. Stuart K. Spencer has known or been involved in every election since 1961. Karen Spencer was the California lobbyist in Washington, D.C. for five years, representing every state agency in our Nation's capitol. She has also worked in the State legislature. For years, Dr. Spencer taught a Master's public policy course at the University of Southern California Sacramento campus. Spencer’s first marriage, to Joan Dikeman, ended in divorce. He married Barbara Callihan in 1992. In addition to her, he is survived by two children from his first marriage, Steven Krieg Spencer and Karen Gwen Spencer; a stepdaughter, Debbie DeSilva; and six grandchildren.