Mr. Ernest Gustave Spey, age 94, of Shelton, CT, and North Fort Myers, FL, entered into the rest of his Lord and Savior Jesus Christ on Wednesday, January 9, 2019, at his home in Florida with his loving wife, Ann, by his side holding his hand.
He was the devoted husband of 72 years to Ann Elaine Hoge. He was a loving father to their three sons, Gregory Ernest, Stephen John and Bryan Wayne.
Ernie was born in Shelton on October 10, 1924, to Johann and Alma Emma Spey. Johann immigrated from Germany to Shelton with his bride Alma Emma Schnell.
They had two sons, Hans and Ernie. As a young boys their mother had Hans and Ernie walk to the english-speaking Methodist Church every Sunday while their parents attended the german-speaking Lutheran church. His brother Hans with wife Betty were active members of the Shelton Methodist church their entire lives.
When Ernie retired he resumed meeting at his home church and his wife Ann where they remain members until this day. A former member of their church who attended with Ernie’s family and then entered the ministry, Reverend Ximena A. Varas, will be presiding over the service.
Ernie was a good, obedient son and a loving brother. He cared for his parents throughout their long lives and also cared for his brother Hans at the end of his life.
After their father passed Ernie took very good care of his mother for the rest of her life.
He provided her with a house in Shelton on Pine Rock Hill where she lived many more years until enjoying her final years living in the Methodist Bishop Wicke Care Center.
Throughout his life Ernie cared and provided for his parents, his brother and his family, his wife and their three sons and their families. As a christian Ernie loved God, and strove to live a godly life towards his family and his fellow man.
Ernie was an excellent student, a corporal in the U.S. Army, a mechanical engineering graduate, a power station operating engineer and rose to the highest level of an engineer manager as the superintendent of multiple power generating stations.
After graduating from Shelton High School in 1942 he was accepted into the Drexel Institute, a prestigious engineering school in Philadelphia PA where he majored in Mechanical Engineering and joined the Army ROTC. After a year at Drexel he entered the Army as a communication specialist.
The Army was very interested in making Ernie an officer, but he did not want to make the Army his career. Ernie wanted to become an engineer. So instead of sending him to officers candidate training, he Army gave him very specialized training in secure communications by sending him to three different universities, Syracuse, Ohio State and Texas A&M.
Ernie, his brother, Hans, and Ann’s brother, Sanford, played their part in the greatest generation.
While Ernie served in the Aleutian Islands his older brother Hans served in the Marine Corp as a radio operator seeing action in the Pacific including surviving the invasion of Iwo Jima. Ernie’s brother-in law, Sanford Hoge, served in the the Korean conflict. Sanford fought in bitter winter weather including the infamous battle of Pork Chop Hill. Sanford went to be with our Lord last month and he is survived by his loving wife Yvonne, their three children and their seven grandchildren.
After his training Ernie was sent to Seattle to await his duty assignment, not realizing that his life was about to forever change in a most wonderful way. Ann Elaine Hoge from Aneta, North Dakota, had moved to Seattle to be with her sister Clarice and she was supporting the war effort by working at the Keyport Naval Torpedo Station assembling torpedoes and working at the Seattle Naval Communications Center.
Ernie went to a dance at the Crystal Ballroom and he met the love of his life, Ann .When see saw this handsome soldier across the dance floor it was just like the song “Some Enchanted Evening” from the musical South Pacific. This would remain their song for over 72 years of romantic wedded bliss. This was truly love at first dance.
After that first meeting Ernie spent three weeks dating Ann before he was assigned to the 9427th Signal Corp and sent the Davis Army Airfield in Adak, Alaska. Ernie participated in the successful effort to drive the Japanese army out of the Aleutian Islands of Attu and Kiska.
This little known part of WWII was critical due to the Japanese plan to use their Aleutian airfields to bomb the west coast of America.
Operating the U.S. Army Alaska Communications System, at the front line of the US defense, on a barren bitter cold windswept snowy island was very severe life, but Ernie did his duty. Concerning his part in WWII, Ernie said “I served in the North Pacific in the Signal Corp. We sent messages, even to Tokyo to tell them we had the bomb and we didn’t want to use it and they could surrender.” He went on to say “They didn’t surrender.”
On June 28th, 1946, Ernie received an honorable discharge including the Victory Medal, American Theater Service Medal, Asiatic Pacific Service Medal, Good Conduct Medal and the Meritorious Unit Award.
On August 25, 1946 Ernie Spey and Ann Hoge were joined in marriage at the German Lutheran Church. After their wedding Ernie and Ann moved to Philadelphia, PA, where he resumed his degree work at the Drexel Institute. It was extremely difficult to find housing after the war so they had to live in a one room walk-up apartment in for three years while he was attending Drexel.
Ann worked for the Curtis Publishing Company to support them and Ernie also worked while he attended school full time. Soon after receiving his Bachelor of Science degree in mechanical engineering, BSME, Ernie obtained a position as an operating engineer working at power generating stations for the Philadelphia Electric Company, PECO, producing electricity for the southeast Pennsylvania area.
After proving himself as an engineer at the coal fired power plants in Philadelphia, Ernie was promoted to Plant Engineer at the Conowingo Hydroelectric Plant and Dam which was located where US Route 1 crosses the Susquehanna river, near Darlington, MD.
The Conowingo Dam was completed in 1928 and is still considered a great feat of engineering. Ernie was then promoted to Assistant Plant Superintendent and while he was at Conowingo he was instrumental in completing the construction of the Muddy Run Pumped Storage Power Plant and he also assisted with the operation of the Peach Bottom Atomic Power Plant.
Due to his exemplary work at the Conowingo, Muddy Run and Peach Bottom Power Plants PECO invested in Ernie by sending him to the Harriman Institute of the Columbia University in New York City to for post-graduate work in Executive Management. Then PECO promoted Ernie again to become the Plant Superintendent of Richmond Station, one of their largest coal burning plants. He also managed Croydon Station, a similar but smaller plant. Once again Ernie rewarded PECO’s faith in him by doing a great job managing both plants.
Now it was time for Ernie greatest and final promotion, he would return become the Superintendent of the Conwingo Hydro Electric Plant and Dam, which also is the bridge over the Susquehanna River for US Route 1. This is the highest position in PECO for engineering
As the Plant Superintendent Ernie had to continually coordinate with the Pennsylvania and Maryland State Governments and with the Federal Government to keep Rt.1 open, prevent catastrophic flooding, keep the river flowing and to maintain the level of the upstream reservoir, which is a source or drinking water and a popular recreation and boating area.
The Conwingo Plant Superintendent has significant level of multi-layered overlapping responsibility. Much greater that most Pant Superintendents and Ernie excelled at this job. Even when he could have retired early, he was asked to work until the required retirement age due to his very successful management of this crucial power plant and critical public works project. The Conowingo Dam and Hydroelectric Plant continues to be the crown jewel of the PECO power plants.
Ernie’s exemplary career at PECO spanned 38 years He retired with high honors in 1989.
Due his first assignment at Conowingo the formative years for Ernie and his family occurred from 1960 to 1970. The dam was only a few miles from Darlington, MD, a very small rural town in farm country with an elementary school, volunteer fire hall, post office, library, general store, pharmacy and one gas station This was a big change for living in Philadelphia. The nearest mid size town with a High School, Bel Air, MD was 17 miles away.
The family attended the historic Darlington Methodist Church which was built in 1858 and still maintains a strong congregation. During these years Ernie served on the board of the church and also in the local Lions Club. Ernie’s raised their children with strong Christian Methodist faith just as his mother raised him and his brother Hans.
During he time in Darlington Ernie joined the Freemasons. He was also a member in good standing hie entire life for over 53 years at the Stevenson Masonic Lodge, #135. He was also a member of the Masonic Tall Cedars of Lebanon Har-Ce Forest, #142. Ernie enjoyed his time at Stevenson Lodge and rose through the Scottish Rite to become a 32nd Degree Mason. He went on to become very active in the Shriners, Ancient Order of the Nobles of the Mystic Shrine. He was a member of the Boumi Shrine in Baltimore, the Lu Lu Shrine in Philadelphia, the Araba shrine in Ft Myers FL and the the Pyramid Shrine in Stratford, CT, where he was a member in good standing until his passing.
Ernie and Ann had full social life during their 72 years together. They traveled extensively, dring their boys across the country, touring Norway, Scotland and Germany. They enjoyed Ballroom and Round Dancing, but they were avid and accomplished square dancers, dancing every week to the most challenging calliers. Ernie also enjoyed playing and watching golf, but his passion was boating since he had grown up enjoying the Housatonic River.
He owned speed boats while living in Conowingo in the 1960s and the family enjoyed many hours on the Conowingo Reservoir, water skiing and swimming.
When he returned in the1980’s he purchased a Marinette 32 foot aluminum hull motor yacht and upgraded it by installing dual controls on the flybridge. He and Ann cruised the Susquehanna River taking frequent trips into the Cheapeake Bay. During his retirement years Ernie took his boat up to Shelton and enjoyed many excursions on the Housatonic River.
Ernie’s greatest adventure of his life was yet to come. He loved his Marinette and decided to pilot her all the way down the inland waterway from Connecticut to Florida. Ann proved his equal by meeting him there and making their winter home on the boat. As they cruised around Florida they went to visit friends on Sanibel Island and moored the boat in North Fort Myers at a marina at the Parkway condominiums. One day when Ann was out exploring the area she found a condominium that was just put up for sale. It was beautifully furnished and just perfect. The owner who lived up north told his agent to sell it right away. All he wanted from his condo were his golf clubs. Ann said she would take it and went back to tell Ernie she found their winter home completely furnished including a dock for his boat and ready to move in.
What could Ernie say? The condo was on the first floor with the rear porch, or lanai, directly on the marina! It was perfect for both of them. Ann had her modern condo in a prestigious complex and Ernie had his Marinette moored right outside his back door. Every morning he would have his breakfast on the lanai watching the boats go by and then walk 50 ft out to his Marinette to take Ann on a cruise or just to spend time on his boat.
He was always doing improvements to his boat, working on the engine, adding the latest electronics and a speed little inflated boat he could launch by hoist from the rear deck of his Marinette. Now they were snowbirds, with their summer home nestled in the beautiful woods on Pine Rock in Shelton and their condo in North Fort Myers on a marina with a dock for Ernie’s boat
Ernie and Ann are the beloved parents of three sons. The oldest Gregory Ernest Spey passed in 2014 and is survived by his wife Laura Hugenberg Spey and two children from his first marriage, Kadey and Tyler, to Marcy Harshman. Ernie is survived by two sons, Stephen John and Bryan Wayne. Stephen is married to Lisa Kirkwood and Bryan is married to Mary Sullivan. Ernie is survived by five grandchildren, Stephen John Jr. and his wife Wendy, Mathew Scott and his wife Lauren, Andrew Ernest, Kadey Louise and her life partner Jon and Tyler Lazer. Ernie is survived by great grandchildren: Nathan John, Eleanor Jean, Jason Andrew, Emma Kimberly, Abram John, Wyatt Gregory and James Adam.
Ernie’s great living legacy are his children, grandchildren and great grandchildren. They are all loving expressions of his own enduring love for his precious bride, Ann Elaine.
Ernie’s contributions to his fellow man and country are his selfless duty as a loyal soldier in the US Army, his academic attainments at Drexel and Columbia Universities, his contribution of 38 years to the Philadelphia Electric Company keeping the electricity flowing to millions of fellow citizens, his peerless management of the Conowingo Hydroelectric Plant and Dam, his strong support and love of the Methodist worship of God, and his tireless charitable work as a Freemason in the Tall Cedars of Lebanon and a Shriner.
Ernie was truly a good man who received the Lord’s mercy to love his wife, raise his boys, serve his country, obtain the highest level in public utility service, show his love for his fellow man through his charitable fraternal activities and enjoy 30 golden years of good health. His is sorely missed by all who knew and loved him. We know he is in God’s eternal kingdom, Amen.
Friends may call on Saturday, May 25th from 12:00 – 1:00 p.m. at the Riverview Funeral Home, 390 River Rd., Shelton. His funeral service will follow at the parlor. Committal prayers with full military honors will follow at Lawn Cemetery.
Ernie’s life will also be celebrated on Sunday morning, May 26th at the Shelton United Methodist Church. Friends may leave condolences online at http://www.riverviewfh.com.
