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Description area
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History
Robert Allan Spencer, historian, educator and administrator, was born in Montreal on 9 November 1920. Following his undergraduate degree from McGill (BA 1941), he served with the
Canadian Forces in Britain and Northwest Europe (1942-1946). After obtaining his MA in 1947 (University of Toronto) and his DPhil (St John's College, Oxford) in 1950, he joined the
Department of History at the University of Toronto. He held various administrative posts in the Department and in the University during his career culminating in his years as the director of the Centre for International Studies (1976-1986). Between 1959 and 1984 he was co-editor of International Journal. His main field of historical scholarship, German studies, led to active involvement in the Atlantic Brücke, the annual Canada-Germany symposium. The links he developed with the Federal Republic of Germany earned him the Goethe Medal and the Commander’s Cross of the Order of Merit. He wrote or edited works in the areas of German affairs and Canadian foreign policy. A founding member of the Atlantic Council of Canada, he served as Secretary, Secretary-Treasurer, Vice-President and President over the period from 1966 to 1990. In 1998 he was given an Honorary Fellowship by Trinity College. In 1948 Professor Spencer married Ruth Margaret Church. The couple had three children, Charles, Valerie Spencer Keyes and Katherine Spencer-Ross. Professor Spencer lives in Ottawa.