Andover, Maine native, Robert Spidell, passed away peacefully on April 26, 2025, at his home in San Clemente, Calif., at the age of 91. Bob was an outgoing, energetic person, known for his ability to achieve his ambitions in life while remaining humble, kind, and happy.
Robert Adelbert Spidell was born at his family home in Andover in 1933, to Avard and Rena (Bodwell) Spidell, the youngest of their three children. He attended Andover schools and was a member of Andover High School baseball and ski teams. In his senior year of high school, he was the Maine state champion in both downhill and slalom. He remained an avid skier and baseball player well into his 50s.
Bob joined the Marine Corps in 1953. He served in Korea as a machine gunner and electrician, then completed his enlistment at Camp Pendleton in southern California.
Upon his discharge in 1956, he returned to Western Maine, where he found his opportunities limited. He was hired at Oxford Paper Company in Rumford to help build the water treatment facility. One day after working on the roof during a week of sub-zero temperatures, he had a sudden desire to head back to California. He took advantage of the GI bill to help pay his way through Long Beach State College (now CSULB), from which he graduated with a degree in business. He was employed in the aerospace industry, working in quality control on the Apollo Project. He then worked at Independent Tax Corp, which pioneered the use of computers to prepare tax returns. Bob founded his own tax-consulting business, Spidell Publishing in 1974. Over the years he built it into the largest privately-owned provider of tax information in California, offering seminars and newsletters for accountants to keep up with changes in the tax code.
With his gregarious personality, Bob was made for public speaking and turned out to possess the amazing quality of making California tax law understandable and even interesting.
In 1963, Bob married Janet Murphy. They had four children, Robert, Susan, Jennifer, and James. They raised them in Anaheim, Calif., where Bob built his business.
Bob felt a great loyalty and gratitude toward the places that shaped him. His office at Spidell Publishing was dominated by an enormous jigsaw puzzle of the Andover town common, keeping him in mind of where he came from. In 1992 he founded the Andover Education Fund, to give graduating high school students from Andover the kind financial help he wished he’d had as a young man starting out.
Bob became active in the Cal State Long Beach Alumni Association, eventually serving as its president. He put great effort into raising funds for his alma mater, hoping to give back to the institution that gave him the opportunity to achieve his goals. Along with his wife, Janet, Bob funded an endowment that resulted in the Spidell Technology Center, a computer center enabling CSULB students to conduct research using the latest technology.
In 1997 Bob sold Spidell Publishing to his employees and began an extremely active retirement. He remained a consultant to his former company well into his 80s, driving himself to seminars to get feedback from current customers and enjoying his legendary reputation as “Mr. California Tax.”
He and Janet moved to San Clemente, Calif. in 1999. His interest in genealogy resulted in frequent trips to New England, especially his hometown. Bob possessed an encyclopedic knowledge of local lore. On drives around Andover, he could point to any property and recount everyone who had ever lived there, how they were related to everyone else, and what year the barn burned down. During this period, he self-published two books on Andover history, “The Pynelis Journals” and “The Lohnes Diaries”.
Bob was predeceased by his wife, Janet; sister, Shirley Smith and brother-in-law, Jack Smith, brother, Howard Spidell and sister-in-law, Ruth Hall Spidell.
He is survived by his son, Robert Spidell and wife Christine, daughter, Susan Peek and husband Kevin, daughter, Jennifer Hamdi, and son, James Spidell; grandchildren Nathan and Alexandra Spidell, Ian and Logan Clardy, Sumaya Toth and husband Alex, Nisrina Turnick and husband Ron, and Khalil Hamdi; great-grandchildren Robert and Francis Toth, and Sylvie, Archer, Solace, Olive and Fletcher Turnick; as well as many beloved nephews, nieces; and friends. He leaves them all feeling blessed to have known him.
A Celebration of Life will be held on June 12, from 4-7PM, at the Earl Burns Miller Japanese Garden at California State University, Long Beach.
Bob will be buried with Janet at Woodlawn Cemetery in Andover.