Charles Spencer stands for a portrait at Jaxport. Born and raised in the Talleyrand area of Jacksonville, Spencer spent his life around the docks on the St. Johns River, playing there as a neighborhood kid and then working at Jaxport as a longshoreman. A member since 1963 of ILA 140, the local chapter of the International Longshoremens Association, AFL-CIO, he founded the ILA 1408 Scholarship Fund, which marks its 25th anniversary this year. It has awarded more than $750,000 in scholarships to over 1,000 high school and college students. He founded the scholarship in 1995 because he didnt want fellow longshoremen to struggle to pay for their childrens education the way he did.
Photo made March 10, 2021.
[Fran Ruchalski for the Florida Times-Union]