It didn’t take me long to like John Spencer. This may seem a strange thing to say until you know that - at first glance at least - our businesses were competitors. A few days ago, I learned he died from COVID-19. It really took the wind out of my sails that day. As it has with everyone I’ve shared this news.
John brought a wide range of experience to audio preservation, from his time working for Otari to his days selling high-end computer systems. He was a thought leader in our field, helping us all make the transition to digital preservation. He was an early and passionate advocate for LTO as an archival storage medium. “I should just have LTO stamped on my forehead!” He fought for metadata standardization and put his time into showing up for meetings to be sure it got done. He had a way of explaining concepts to bridge communication between artists and archivists. He coined the phrase, “catastrophic metadata” as a way of explaining the role of metadata embedded in a file - not the ‘authority’, not comprehensive, but good enough to understand the object if separated from its context. I use the term all the time. And I always give him credit, “my friend John Spencer coined the phrase…”
John and I served on the Grammy Foundation panel that reviews and updates the technical specifications for their audio preservation grants. The conference calls are a challenge because the Grammy draws people from around the world - a lot of time zones to juggle. After a few meetings where everyone shared the latest developments in the field and suggested updates, a smaller group was scheduled to revise the document. Somehow the time got mixed up, and John and I were the only ones who showed up on the call. “As long as we’re here…” we just went ahead and did the work. We were done in under an hour, shared the document, and it was accepted by the group. That was John: “we don’t need another meeting, how about now?” Quick, smooth, respectful exchange of views, converge, done.
The last few days have been filled with memories of John. The times we were on panels together. Late nights at the bar getting to know each other. His advocacy for standards - such as serving AES and the Grammy Producers and Engineers wing. The time he showed up at an open ARSC Technical Committee meeting with a six-pack and proceeded to hand them around. Meeting him in the lobby before a conference when he looked kinda rough and learned he was going through a rough patch in his life. Stepping out of a hotel one morning in search of breakfast to find him returning from a long walk, his commitment to get healthy. Laughing myself silly when he’d break a tense moment in a meeting with a folksy southern aphorism. He collected good people around him, too. Through John I met Bob Heiber, Michele Winn and other top people in our field - who are, like John, super human beings.
The world was a better place with John In it. The world will remain a better place because he was here. Goodbye John.