William Arnold Spicer, III papers (Ms.2012.023)

Biographical/Historical note

William Arnold Spicer III (1919-2008) was born and raised in Providence, R.I., and, like his father, William A. Spicer, Jr. (Brown 1905), graduated from Brown University in 1942. During World War II, Spicer served under Gen. George S. Patton as a U.S. Army guide and French interpreter, taking part in Operation Torch in North Africa. After the war, he worked for the St. Regis Paper Company in Rumford, R.I; for Brown & Sharpe Co. in Chicago; and for B.I.F. Industries, Inc. in Providence before joining the Division of Engineering at Brown, where he served as an administrator for ten years. He then worked for the Rhode Island School of Design (RISD) for 2 years in administration under President Lee Hall.

Spicer was a man of myriad interests. He developed an abiding interest in the care and restoration of antique clocks that he turned into a vocation during his retirement years. Known around town as "the clock guy," he cared for vintage clocks belonging to nearly every local institution including Brown, the RISD Museum, the Rhode Island Historical Society, the First Unitarian Church on Benefit Street, and the Herreshoff Marine Museum in Bristol. He was something of a fixture at the John Hay Library at Brown, where he wound and cared for the Library's numerous clocks. He was also an accomplished genealogist who traced his family roots back to the Mayflower and to Deacon Edward Taylor of Providence, an early Congregational leader. He belonged to a number of clubs and organizations, including the National Association of Watch and Clock Collectors, the Providence Art Club, the Brown Faculty Club, the Handicraft Club, the Providence Athenaeum, the Sons of the American Revolution, the Agawam Hunt Club of Rhode Island and the Beneficent Congregational Church.