Duncan Spencer

Journalist, Author, Sailor, Athlete

Duncan Spencer is an award-winning journalist and author and a trophy-winning athlete in both sailing and rowing. He is the author and co-author of four previous books and numerous magazine and newspaper articles in publications including The Washington Post, Regardie’s Magazine, and Sailing Magazine.

A graduate of Yale University (1962) with an MA from Oxford University (1965), Spencer was captain of the varsity crew at Yale and a member of the prestigious Blue Boat for three years at Oxford. He worked for the Washington Star (later the Star-News) from 1965 until it folded in 1981 and later wrote a column for Roll Call and then The Hill newspapers in Washington.

His sailing adventures include five transatlantics, the first in a twenty-foot sloop that, with a twenty-nine-day crossing, broke the record for small boats going from Newport, Rhode Island, to Ireland. He has sailed to Cuba nine times and made numerous voyages up and down the Eastern Seaboard.

Now eighty-five, he continues to row in local, national, and international competitions.

Spencer has lived in Washington, DC, since 1965. He is married to journalist Megan Rosenfeld and has five children and six grandchildren.