Spencer, Selden, M.D.

The following data is extracted from Centennial History of Missouri.

Dr. Selden Spencer, surgeon and laryngologist enjoying an extensive and important practice in St. Louis as a professional associate of Dr. Richard Johnson Payne, was born in this city March 23, 1873, and is a son of Dr. H. N. Spencer, a distinguished physician who passed away in August, 1915.

The son was educated in the public and manual training schools of St. Louis and in St. Paul's School at Concord, New Hampshire, before entering Princeton College, where he won his Bachelor of Arts degree in 1897. He then took up the study of medicine in Washington University and gained his M. D. degree in 1899. Following his graduation he served for one year as interne in the St. Louis City Hospital and during the succeeding two years studied abroad in various European colleges, being at different periods in Berlin, London and Edinburgh. On his return he became associated with his father in practice and the relation was maintained until the father's death. Qualifying thoroughly for treatment of diseases of the ear, nose and throat and also for surgical work Dr. Spencer has won prominence in those fields. He served as chief of the ear clinic in the Washington University and was also on the staff of the Eye, Ear, Nose and Throat Hospital. At the present writing he is otolaryngologist for the Missouri Baptist Sanitarium.

During the World war he was assistant surgeon and surgeon in the United States Public Health Service Hospital and he was also a captain of the Missouri Home Guard. Dr. Spencer belongs to various societies formed for the purpose of promoting knowledge and raising the standards of the profession, his membership being with the American Otological Society, the St. Louis, Missouri State, Southern Medical and American Medical Associations and with the American College of Surgeons. He is well known as the author of a work entitled "A Practical Guide to the Examination of the Ear."

On the 3d of June, 1903, Dr. Spencer was married in New York city to Miss Mabel Williams, a native of the eastern metropolis, and a daughter of E. C. and Eliza (Castree) Williams. They have become parents of two children: Elizabeth, born in St. Louis, March 4, 1905; and Louis, April 6, 1909.

Dr. Spencer gives his political endorsement to the democratic party. He is also a member of Tuscan Lodge, No. 360, A. F. & A. M., has attained the thirty-second degree of the Scottish Rite and is a member of the Mystic Shrine. In club circles he is well known as a member of the Missouri Athletic Association and the St. Louis University Club and his religious faith is that of the Westminster Presbyterian church. His standards of life are high, commanding for him the respect and confidence of his fellowmen, while the development of his professional powers has placed him in a position of leadership in the line of his specialty.

Source: Centennial History of Missouri

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