Monday, April 13th, 2015
Coldwater principal loses long battle with melanoma
By Jared Mauch
Photo by Mark Pummell/The Daily Standard
Coldwater Elementary School Principal Wade Spencer speaks to students about his battle with cancer during a 2014 assembly. He died Saturday after three years of battling melanoma. Warriors for Wade created a T-shirt fundraiser and a Facebook page to show support for Spencer and his family. File Photo.
COLDWATER - Elementary school principal Wade Spencer, 39, on Saturday lost his three-year-long fight with melanoma.
Coldwater Exempted Village Schools Superintendent Rich Seas said Spencer was an inspiration to the students and staff that surrounded him.
"You gain strength from being around someone like that," he said.
Spencer was a hard-working professional who always came to work and did the best he could, even during his fight with cancer, Seas said
"He did an absolutely wonderful job as principal. He was wonderful with the state initiatives," Seas said.
The school had good results based on the state report card under Spencer's leadership, Seas said.
In January 2014 a Facebook group, Warriors for Wade, was created to encourage and support Spencer in his fight.
The page's first role was to promote a T-shirt fundraiser, said Spencer's wife, Jacci. Students wore those shirts to school to support Spencer.
Since then, the page became a place for people to show support for him and his family.
"It's been a way for me to communicate to the community and family," Jacci Spencer said.
Past students, students' parents and old college friends all posted to the page, which has more than 1,400 likes, she said.
"It was nice to honor him before he passed," she said.
Teachers from the Coldwater, Celina and Bradford school districts have been very supportive, she said.
Spencer shared his story with his students last March during the school's Pennies for Patients week supporting The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society.
Doctors notified Spencer he had cancer in March 2012 after he had a small mole on his knee examined. He had 17 lymph nodes removed in July 2012.
Spots on his liver and lung were found later that year and he went to the University of Michigan to have them removed.
Spencer also underwent multiple radiation treatments during his battle against cancer.
The school board will recognize Spencer, who was hired as principal in 2008, at Tuesday's meeting, according to Seas.
Ted Shuttleworth will continue to fill in as principal for the rest of the school year, Seas said.
