Profile: Vivienne Spector, League of Women Voters President and Citizen Leader

This Jenkintown resident has moderated dozens of candidate forums and Legislative Interviews.  She is behind countless voter registration drives across the area. She takes time to write civic-minded, well-researched letters to the editors.   A “diversity group” took up her challenge over a decade ago, meeting monthly for years to reach across racial and religious assumptions, asking otherwise un-askable questions and gaining understanding, respect and appreciation in return.

For those who don’t already know and admire this force of civic dedication, Abington Patch introduces Vivienne Spector, president of the League of Women Voters of Abington-Cheltenham-Jenkintown.

“A fierce advocate for good government,” is how Shirley Curry describes Vivienne Spector. 

She would know.  

They’ve been neighbors in Jenkintown for almost half a century.  And both women are devoted to public affairs.

“She’s energetic, caring and thoughtful.  Always there when you need her,” Curry said.

Spector has been a member of the League since the 1960s; her children were small and she and her husband Herb were living in Oak Lane. 

“It was wonderfully eye-opening,” Spector said.  “These women were intelligent, articulate, knew the issues and studied the issues.”

The League of Women Voters (LWV) is a non-partisan civic organization that dates back to women’s suffrage efforts in 1920.  Its mission is to educate citizens and to encourage informed participation in government policy making. Without endorsing candidates or favoring one party over another, LWV is about political involvement and advocacy.

Spector is known for her “unwavering leadership” to the LWV of Abington-Cheltenham-Jenkintown, according to Nancy Posel, retired Director of the Abington Library System and a director on the State Board of the League of Women Voters of Pennsylvania.

Each year the League adopts programs to improve transparency and efficiency in local government to connect citizens to their elected officials, Posel said.

Echoing the words of retired Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor, Spector said, “It’s the obligation of citizens to understand how government works and what it does.”

Spector, one of the youngest 80-year-olds anyone can imagine, recently retired from a 45-year career as a real estate broker.  Born in Philadelphia, Spector graduated from Olney High School and attended Temple University.  She fondly recalls her tough, ninth-grade social studies teacher. 

“There would be surprise tests on current events,” she said. “You had to read the newspapers or listen to the news.  We had to know all the cabinet members and he made us memorize the preamble to the Constitution.”

Spector said that every word of the Constitution was explained: “’In order to form a more perfect Union’… I don’t think kids get that today,” she said.

Activism defined the family in which Vivienne Spector grew up.  Politics was regularly discussed in the household, and she has been involved in one way or another since she was 14 years old.  

Spector said she loves League work.

“I think it’s important to bring issues to the public,” Spector said. “Forums give residents a chance to meet and question their candidates for office.  Legislative Interviews give the public the opportunity to know who their representatives are, what they’re doing and how responsibly they’re performing in their elected positions.

“I get upset when I talk to people who don’t know what the parties stand for and don’t care,” she said.  “It’s very disheartening when they say their vote doesn’t matter.”

She explained that without being registered to vote, it’s harder to be involved in the decisions that make a difference.

Asked what she enjoys the most about the League, where she has served as president and held other volunteer positions for well over the past decade, Spector replied robustly, “I enjoy it all!”  And she added, “The Conventions are wonderful.”

A mother of three and grandmother to seven, Spector’s life is more than politics. Her family could be described as “outdoorsy” people, who camp, hike, bike and ski.  The Spectors travel as much as possible, and just returned from a visit with their daughter-in-law in Hong Kong. 

Vivienne Spector is a “functional potter.”  She takes public transportation down to The Clay Studio in Old City Philadelphia, where she produces mugs, pots and bowls. “Things you use,” she said; she gives most of them away.

She once donated a covered casserole piece that she had crafted for an auction to benefit Jenkintown Library.  And some years later when she was showing a house to a real estate client, there it was!  She did not know the homeowners, so it gave her quite a thrill to see her work spotlighted in that way. 

Spector has belonged to the same book group for 40 years.  It started out with “Great Books” and still focuses on “important literature.”  She also enjoys theater.

A sense of equity drives Spector, whose philosophy reveals her heart.  Ask her about her goals, and you’ll find them entwined with universal ideals. 

“I’d love to see the world at peace, in my time,” she said.  “I want to see our children do as well as we did, when it didn’t require two people working to support a family.  And I’d like to see the League flourishing with new, younger minds.”

She didn’t miss a beat when she was asked to share a word of advice. 

“Get involved!” Spector said. “Work for the betterment of your school district, your political system, your community, the world around you.  Get excited!”