‘The kindest man you’d ever meet’: Friends mourn death of Helena’s ‘Book Guy,’ David Spencer

On Thursday, that stool was turned around and leaned up against the bar, a beer mug sat upside down on the counter and a sign read: “Reserved for David ‘Book Guy’ Spencer Rest in Peace.”

Helena’s beloved “Book Guy” died Wednesday. He was 78.

Christina Barbachano, executive director of the Holter Museum, where Spencer was a fixture for nearly 35 years, said she found him in his apartment Wednesday when he failed to come to work earlier in the day. It is believed he died hours earlier. He had been ill for some time, she said, adding he had pneumonia and sepsis last year.

“He was known everywhere,” Barbachano said Thursday.

Spencer, most recently the Holter’s store assistant and historian, was a familiar sight in downtown Helena, carrying bags stuffed with books.

“He haunted all of Last Chance Gulch and all of Helena for 40 years,” Barbachano said jokingly. “He was the kindest man you’d ever meet.”

She said he claimed to read three-five books a day. She added he had a photographic memory and his recall was incredible.

Spencer always had 20-30 books with him in bags, she said.

“That is how I knew he was very, very sick, because he showed up to work with two books,” Barbachano said.

She said she had tried to get him to go to hospital for more than a week, but he refused. She believes it was because of his health scare last year in which he was in the hospital for more than a week.

A GoFundMe page had been set up at that time and raised $10,724 to help him pay hospital bills, exceeding the $10,000 goal. “Although David’s book collection is vast, his lifestyle is very minimal — he does not own a phone, a car, or a computer,” the site noted.

“He is known to be fond of intelligent conversation and philosophical discussions, and seems to have a book recommendation for everyone,” the GoFundMe site stated. “It’s probably not far off to assume that David has, in many ways, kept the spirit of literacy and learning alive in Helena for many years.”

Barbachano said he was the Holter’s “longest-standing employee, he was the history of the Holter. He won’t be replaced.”

A 2002 story in the Independent Record said Spencer was a familiar figure to many Helena resident and could be seen walking around town with a “telltale stack of books, conversing in coffee shops or browsing the new selections at the Lewis and Clark Library.”

At the time he said he was probably the library’s most frequent customer.

The story said he had left his job as an editor and proofreader at Blue Cross Blue Shield and “began making inroads to my real life.”

He grew up in Twin Falls, Idaho. He moved to Helena in 1985 and completed his degree in English literature at Carroll College in 1990, nearly a quarter-century after he began.

Michael Herbert, a bartender at the Gold Bar, said Thursday that Spencer was a very well-liked customer.

“He probably had the grip strength of a rancher from carrying all those books,” he said.

And always had others engaged in stories about books. Herbert said the tribute at the bar was the idea of Sarah, a senior bartender.

“She cared for him a lot,” he said.

Riley Tubbs, owner of Ten Mile Creek Brewery, said Spencer came to his place as well.

“It’s hard to find someone down here who didn’t know him,” he said. “I think he frequented every business in the gulch.”

“He was one of the sweetest guys.”

Tubbs said Spencer seemed to retain everything he read.

“Every time I chatted with him he would bring up a book,” he said. “I think he read the most books of anybody in this world.”

Barbachano told members of Hometown Helena on Thursday that the Holter had planned retirement party for him later this month, but are shifting that to a celebration of life that will be held Dec. 20.

The museum noted his death on its Facebook page.

“To know David was to love David. And of course, passing away on World Kindness Day seems so very fitting,” museum officials stated.

Barbachano invited people to share memories and photos of David on the Holter’s Facebook page.

“He had no next of kin, except for the community of Helena,” she said.

Barbachano said some people are getting together to ensure his book collection is taken care of.

She said he has “thousands and thousands and thousands and thousands of books.”

“There is no way to measure.”

Former Mayor Jim Smith, who moderates Hometown Helena, said Spencer was “a one-man bookmobile.”

One person in the audience said they believed the fireball that lit up the Montana skies late Tuesday was Spencer.

The celebration will be at the Holter, which museum officials said Spencer considered his second home.

They said more information will be posted as details come together.

“In the meantime, in his honor we request that you read some books, drink a pint of beer or hot tea, and remember a man that was the heart of downtown Helena and the Holter for four decades,” museum officials said on Facebook. “We love you David and you will be sorely missed.”