Positively Russ Spencer
Reflecting on the Legacy of an Early Positively State Street Columnist
In addition to writing and filmmaking, Russ Spencer (second from left) had a passion for music. He sang and played guitar in a band called Frank Jaegers, which also included (from left) Grant Friedrich, Ellen Turner, and Pete Lester.
I never knew Russ Spencer, but in a way, he helped give me a purpose. One of the early columnists for the Positively State Street column, he benefited generations of musicians, artists, and writers alike as a spokesperson of Santa Barbara’s music scene.
Russ passed away in the early hours of Saturday, March 23, on the 101 freeway; it was likely a suicide. The world stopped for a moment the day he passed. I remember: Traffic came to a standstill. Someone had been on the road, I’d heard, but details were then publicly unknown. I was stuck in traffic on the 126 near Fillmore that Saturday morning due to another, different car collision that ended someone’s life mere hours and miles apart. The two major highways were gridlocked in the halting presence of death.
For those who knew Russ, the days since have been both tremendously heartbreaking and suffused with brightness upon remembering the kind of person he was. Jeff Gordinier, his Positively State Street successor, shared his reflections on Facebook. He recalls when he “faced an impossible and unforeseen challenge” of taking on the column’s helm: “I had to follow in the footsteps of Russ Spencer. … Russ was a star, the supremo, the unofficial mayor of the 805,” he wrote. Gordinier remembers him as a “talented journalist,” a “deft, compassionate filmmaker,” a “dedicated surfer,” but above all, “a man of almost supernatural kindness — alert, attentive, intuitive.”
