William Vaughan Spencer II

W. Vaughan Spencer, 87, of Southmont, North Carolina and Key West, Florida, passed away Wednesday evening, July 29th, 2026 at home in the arms of his wife of 27 years, Roberta Webb Spencer. A funeral requiem will be held Saturday, August 22, 2026 at 4:00 p.m. at Grace Episcopal Church in Lexington, NC. The family will receive friends following the service at a reception in the parish hall.

Vaughan was born on October 11, 1938 in Anchorage, Kentucky to the late William Vaughan Spencer and Evelyn McGowin Spencer. Vaughan had strong, deep Alabama southern roots due to the influence of his maternal grandparents, uncles and cousins. The McGowin family, early into best practices for land conservation and forestry, owned one of the first steam engine operated lumber mills in Chapman, Alabama. As a young child, Vaughan fell in love with all things “lumber”, exploring the woods, the creeks, and spotting game that traveled the timberlands. With extended family nearby in Mobile and along the gulf, the ocean also became his lifelong wanderlust.

Vaughan attended preparatory school in Lawrenceville, New Jersey and, during his high school years, was a member of the ROTC. He graduated from Yale University with a bachelor's degree in psychology with a strong mix of mathematics. He served in Mannheim and Heidelberg, Germany as a 2nd Lieutenant in the Army, primarily tasked with deciphering code, and was on duty when the Berlin wall was built overnight in 1961.

He returned to Louisville following his tour of duty and joined a brokerage firm at which he’d previously worked a summer job, licensed at age 17 as a municipal bond underwriter. He later joined Stifel Nicolaus & Co, a St. Louis based regional brokerage company specializing in underwriting municipal bonds and refinancing existing bonds, saving municipalities millions in interest costs. Vaughan was named one of the top 20 stockbrokers in America by Registered Representative (the brokers’ trade magazine) and subsequently recruited by George Ball, President of E.F. Hutton.

He later followed Mr. Ball to Prudential Securities and began investigating stock options in the over-the-counter market (there was no existing listed market at the time) and saw the potential of a conservative strategy now known as covered call option. The only problem was that Vaughan was doing all of the required calculations on one of the first 4 function 110v hand calculators, which was insufficient for the task at hand. So, he went in search of a “mini-computer” and found one, about the size of a large office desk and weighing almost 400 pounds. He programmed the mammoth equipment to dial into the New York Stock Exchange’s analog phone system and compile detailed stock options for his clients’ portfolios. It was a game changer. Vaughan later joined a small specialty firm, Churchill Financial, and began to wind down and “smell the roses”. He obtained his Captain’s license and commissioned the building of a 60’ custom motor yacht, the PUT AND CALL. He piloted his boat from Louisville to the Florida Keys each fall and then back in the spring, later traveling to five different countries during his vacation time away from work. On one of his trips in 1994, he met Roberta Webb Faison while visiting Mike and Janice Murphy on a rest stop at Wrightsville Beach. He delighted in telling the story of seeing her topside reading on her 35 Island Packet sailboat across the waterway. Turns out, Roberta was best friends with Janice. Fate intervened. He was smitten he said, but she refused his offer “to go down the river” with him even for a few days because, “I have a bill up in the General Assembly on Tuesday. Not gonna happen”. It was four years before she agreed to be his date over a long weekend at the Kentucky Derby where she‘d planned to attend with the Murphys. The rest is history.

While engaged, Vaughan and Roberta traveled to Pensacola (FL) Aviation to his cousin’s FBO and received their pilot’s licenses. He purchased a Piper Cherokee Six widely known as a “mini-van with wings”. Vaughan loved to tell friends he flew with a briefcase and all of “Berta’s stuff” up and down the eastern half of the US as she was still employed in Raleigh, NC representing the NC Community Action Association. They married in 1999 at the historic Episcopal chapel in Arlie Gardens in Wilmington, NC, then bought and refurbished a home in Key West where they resided for 25 years. Through his years together with Roberta they traveled to Alaska, the islands of the South Pacific, Australia, New Zealand, China, Japan, South Africa, Kenya, Botswana, Tanzania, the Okavango Delta, Zambia, Namibia and Zimbabwe. Most importantly, and because his family expanded, he was able to mentor many loved ones, teaching them to fish and free dive in Key West and hunt the woodlands of his farm in Kentucky. Cole Langlois said long ago “all my firsts have been with Grandpa Vaughan - my biggest fish, my bag lobster limits, my first buck and my love of finance” and Owen Langlois said “the best days of my whole life were with Grandpa Vaughan and Grandma Berta in the Keys.” He so enjoyed being a mentor to the family and friends who loved him and he’ll be greatly missed.

He founded the W. Vaughan Spencer Foundation, which annually provides grants to non-profit entities that better the lives of children, families and handicapped individuals, as well as facilitate research to cure cancer and Alzheimer’s. Due to medical needs he moved to the Lexington, NC area near Roberta’s family in 2023. Vaughan finally retired from the brokerage business after 68 years on January 1, 2024 at the age of 85.

He is survived by his wife Roberta Webb Spencer and his children from a previous marriage to the late Judy Burns Spencer, daughters Judy Spencer (Scott Knowles), Vicky Spencer and Eve Spencer and son Bill Spencer, in addition to stepdaughters Stacy Ogburn (Kevin) and Christina Mayse (Andrew), stepson Bill Faison, bonus son and daughter Tom Secore and Jennifer Herrington, and grandchildren Lizzy Spencer (George Chestnut), Liam Spencer, Cole Langlois, Owen Langlois, Nora Faison, Taylor Mayse and Madison Mayse.

In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to the W. Vaughan Spencer Foundation, P.O. Box 470, Southmont, N.C. 27351, or Grace Church Irrevocable Trust Fund, 419 S Main St, Lexington, NC 27292.