Albert Spendlove

Albert Spendlove, who was actively involved in the newspaper business for 72 years, including seven years (1949-1956) as publisher of the Nashua Telegraph and 56 years (1949-2005) as a director of The Telegraph, died on February 1, 2010, at the age of 94.

Born in Bradford, England on August 9, 1915, Mr. Spendlove emigrated to the United States with his family in 1922, at the age of 7, and became a naturalized U.S. citizen. After graduating from high school in Sanford, Maine in 1933, Mr. Spendlove entered the newspaper business by joining the Sanford Weekly Tribune and Advocate as advertising salesman, photographer, reporter, and sports writer.

In August 1942 he became the publisher of the Biddeford (ME) Daily Journal. He was only 27 years old, and according to the American Newspaper Publishers Association (ANPA), he was at the time the youngest daily newspaper publisher in the United States.

During World War II, Mr. Spendlove served in the United States Coast Guard Reserve, stationed at the Fletcher Neck Coast Guard Station in Biddeford Pool. He was part of a patrol that covered the York County shoreline, reporting all ship activity to the Boston headquarters of the United States Navy. In subsequent years, he liked to joke that due to his outstanding service, the enemy never captured the amusement park at Old Orchard Beach.

While publisher in Biddeford, Mr. Spendlove was named to the ANPA Special Standing Committee for Labor Relations, and remained a member for many years. With William Dyer of the Indianapolis Star and News, he conducted seminars for newspaper publishers throughout the United States and eventually established a permanent series of annual seminars at the University of Chicago.

In 1946, he moved to Worcester, Massachusetts to serve as the Associate Manager of the New England Daily Newspaper Association.

He came to the Nashua Telegraph on October 3, 1949, and served as its publisher until September 4, 1956, when he joined the Philadelphia Evening and Sunday Bulletin as its vice president and business manager. He continued in that role until his retirement in 1975. However, he remained involved in the newspaper business by continuing to serve as a director of the Nashua Telegraph until May 2005.

In 1966, Mr. Spendlove was named as one of four representatives of ANPA to participate in a State Department newspaper exchange with the Soviet Union. He visited newspaper offices in Moscow, Leningrad, Sochi, and Armenia to study newspaper publishing as it was conducted under the control of the communist government.

Of his newspaper career, Mr. Spendlove has said, “I had a barrel of fun along the way. The newspaper business was at its best. Most papers were family owned, individual papers, and the publishers lived in and cared about their communities and served them well.”

Always a history buff, during the 1975-1976 Bicentennial celebrations, Mr. Spendlove served on the re-created First Continental Regiment, participating in re-enactments of the Revolutionary battles at Concord, Lexington, and Bunker Hill, and in the fall of 1975 he participated in the re-enactment of Benedict Arnold’s march to Quebec. It pleased him that one of his ancestors, Colonel John Spendlove, was the British commander at Bunker Hill.

Mr. Spendlove was an avid fisherman and woodcarver, and particularly enjoyed spending time at his small summer cottage on Mousam Lake in Shapleigh, ME.

At the time of his death, Mr. Spendlove lived at the Wood River Village Retirement Community in Bensalem, PA. He was the devoted husband of Dorothy Symonds Spendlove, who died in 1995. He was the father of Martha S. Strohl of Saratoga Springs, NY, and Katherine Talmadge Salle of West Chester, PA. He was the grandfather of Laura Strohl Sanzel and her husband, Kenneth Sanzel; and Rebecca Talmadge Fischer and her husband, Craig Fischer. He was thrilled to live long enough to enjoy the company of his four great-grandchildren, William, Matthew, and Natalie Fischer, and Maya Elizabeth Sanzel.

A memorial service will be held at Wood River Village in the near future. Interment will be at the Goodall Cemetery in Sanford, ME. In lieu of flowers, donations may be made in his memory to the Fellowship Fund of Wood River Village, 3200 Bensalem Blvd., Bensalem, PA 19020.