B. Spencer Meeks Jr.

Dr. B. Spencer Meeks, longtime Professor of Chemistry at Minnesota State University Moorhead, died Sunday evening, August 7, 2016. Spencer was born in Florence, South Carolina to Ben S. and Marcia VanDuzer Meeks on November 17, 1924. He graduated from the University of South Carolina in 1942, magna cum laude and entered active service in the Navy serving until the war was over.

He then entered Cornell University and received the PHD in Chemistry in 1951. Job related work as a chemist and as a professor took him to many countries for some ten years. His life-long love of birds and birding took him around the world to more than 50 countries.

For many of the 38 years he taught at MSUM he was faculty advisor of InterVarsity Christian Fellowship. He had a life-long faith in Christ which led him to some of the overseas experiences and to vital service to the church here where he helped in almost every leadership position through the years. After retirement from MSUM in 1990 he and his wife traveled widely, often on cruises--the last of which took them around Norway!

In June of 1947 he met Fair Caldwell at a church camp and married her two years later. Last June they celebrated their 67th anniversary. They had two children, Alexandra and Benjamin Spencer Meeks, III, both deceased.

Spencer is survived by his wife, Fair, two grandchildren, Leah and Lindsay Rankin, and three great-grandchildren, Elizabeth, Adrian and Alexandra Rankin.

A "Celebration of Life" service will be held Tuesday, August 16, 11 am at First Baptist Church in Fargo.