Leonard E. Spector, 88

Leonard Exter Spector, who most recently divided his time between a house on Flaggy Hole Road in Springs and Deer Isle, Me., died on Dec. 12 at Southampton Hospital. He was 88. 

Mr. Spector had retired as a partner at Audits and Surveys, a Manhattan market research firm, in the 1980s. Outside of his work, Mr. Spector’s family described him as a reader and a conversationalist, a sailor both here and in Maine, a do-it-your-selfer, bridge player, and a loving husband, parent, and friend.

He was born on Dec. 8, 1927, on Second Street on Manhattan’s Lower East Side. He attended Stuyvesant High School in the city and graduated from the City College of New York with a degree in accounting. His parents were Morris Spector and the former Bella Kesten. 

A proud New Yorker for most of his life, he was fond of saying that he was born on Second Street, went to elementary school on Sixth street, went to high school on 18th Street, and college on 23rd Street.

Mr. Spector owned a house on Louse Point Road in Springs from 1984 until recently, spending the past four winters or so on Flaggy Hole Road in a rented house. He was married on May 20, 1990, to the former Martha McCotter, who survives. She said he had a wide range of friends of all ages and was someone to whom others would turn for advice and wisdom born of long experience. A first marriage to the former Frances Rothwitz ended in divorce. 

His children, Matthew Spector of Los Angeles, Nancy Spector of San Francisco, Amy Spector of Concord, Mass., and Jonathan Spector of Woodstock, Vt., also survive, as do six grandchildren.

Mr. Spector was a founding member of the New Shul, a progressive Jewish community center in Manhattan, where his memorial service was held on Dec. 13. Contributions in his memory have been suggested to the Deer Isle Memorial Ambulance Corps, P.O. Box 387, Deer Isle, Me. 04627.