Robert Roy Spanabel

Robert Roy Spanabel was born on July 7, 1931 in East Palestine, Ohio to Abbie Jane Beck Spanabel and Roy Raymond Spanabel. He was the youngest of four children. After high school graduation in 1950, Bob enlisted in the United States Navy, where he served for four years until his honorable discharge in 1953. After leaving the military, Bob earned a Bachelor of Science in Theater at Kent State University receiving the Hallie Pierce Memorial Award for Outstanding Service to the University through Speech and graduating Magna Cum Laude. In 1958, Bob received his Master of Arts in Dramatic Art from the University of Iowa. After working in theater productions in Akron, Pittsburgh, New York and the Acting Company for four summer seasons at the Champlain Shakespeare Festival, Bob served as Artistic Director of Pit and Balcony theatre in Saginaw, Michigan for two years where he directed ten major productions. He joined the Theater and Speech faculty at the University of Minnesota, Duluth in 1961 where he taught Oral Interpretation of Prose, Poetry and Drama; Readers Theater; Acting; and directed six productions. In 1963, he was awarded the McKnight Fellowship in Acting at the Tyrone Guthrie Theatre in Minneapolis, where he appeared in the three plays presented in repertory, including a production of Henry V which gave him the impetus for his forthcoming dissertation. At the end of the 1964 season, Bob and his family (wife Joyce Annette Goodman Spanabel and son Christopher Robin, age 3) moved to Columbus, Ohio where both he and Joy enrolled in graduate study at the Ohio State University. Following four years of study, rehearsals, performances and research at the Ohio State University Theater Collection, the Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington, D.C. and a fellowship that resulted in 15 weeks of research in England, Bob received his PhD from the Ohio State University in English Shakespearian Stage Production. In 1969, Bob joined the theater faculty at Miami University, Oxford, Ohio, where he taught Oral Interpretation of Prose, Poetry and Drama, Readers Theater, Acting, Shakespearian Acting and British Theater History. He directed numerous productions including: Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf, As You Like It, and Gypsy. In his final season at Miami, Bob presented his one-man show of Shakespearian selections Ages of Man which toured regionally and was made into a PBS televised special. After stints at the University of Hawaii at Hilo, the University of Arizona and the University of Delaware, Bob retired and returned to Ohio. There he developed a series of one-man programs of Prose, Poetry and Drama readings, including selections of Shakespeare, Robert Frost, e e cummings, Dylan Thomas, Rod McKuen, Carl Sandburg and others, under the general heading of the Gifts of Literature which he has had the pleasure and privilege of presenting to Central Ohio audiences. Bob loved music, particularly the Jazz of Paul Desmond and Dave Brubeck, literature and the dramatic spoken word. In addition to theater, Bob’s favorites include puppies, kittens, Henry’s Diner homemade butterscotch pie and Wendy’s cheeseburgers. Robert Spanabel is survived by his brother John, his son, Chris and granddaughter, Maya, as well as five nieces, a nephew and friends too numerous to count. Services will be held at St. James Episcopal Church in Clintonville, Ohio on Friday, November 20 at 11:00am. Memorials can be made to St. James Episcopal Church, Clintonville, or the Capital Area Humane Society, 3015 Scioto-Darby Executive Court, Hilliard, OH 43026. On-line condolences may be expressed at www.daymanofskyfuneralservice.com

Robert Roy Spanabel

July 7, 1931 - November 1, 2015