Editor’s Note: This oral history was conducted by Molly Graham in 2020 as a part of the NOAA 50th Anniversary Oral History Project.

Albert “Benjie” Spencer was the National Weather Service’s Chief Engineer and Director of the Engineering Standards Division. He was with NOAA more than 40 years, more than 25 of those in systems engineering and major acquisitions. 

Spencer occupied a unique position with the organization, bridging the gap between the development of the scientific tools the NWS needs to do its job and the forecasters “on the ground” using those tools.

In his oral history, Spencer outlines the path that brought him to the NWS (including how he got his nickname) and a leadership position that has garnered him recognition as one of the nation’s leading engineers. In 2017, he received the Black Engineer of the Year Award for Career Achievement in the Federal Government, and was featured in the Spring 2015 issue of Minority Engineer, in addition to several other awards received both in and outside government. He has been a champion and mentor for minorities interested in science and engineering careers at NOAA. 

Excerpts from the interviews recorded in 2020:

On working for NOAA in several different capacities and how its line offices work together:

"I have worked in three different capacities, I guess, with NOAA – the National Weather Service, I worked with NOAA, and I worked with NESDIS. NOAA has really become a highly respectable entity. The reason I say that – whenever I go somewhere – I’ve even had people reach out to me to say, “Hey, I want to work for NOAA because I love your mission.” To work for an agency that deals with the – essentially, from the ocean floor to the sun, that’s us. When I joined NOAA, it was just a word. The only thing I knew [was] I wanted to do – engineering. That was it. For who was – I don’t know. But I just wanted to do engineering. You look at where we are now, as integrated as we are as an agency – when you look at NOAA, the NESDIS, the Weather Service, the OAR [Oceanic and Atmospheric Research], the NOS [National Ocean Service] – [we] have a better understanding of the relationship between the line offices and what they do for the world at large, not just a community. I think, as we continue to get faster computers, and we probably will be increasing our modeling capability, it’s going to be monumental. We sometimes take the weather for granted, because, hey, I can see it on TV. I can get it on my cell phone. At the core of that, yes, that’s NOAA – the reason that you can. Number two, we have improved, speaking from the Weather Service perspective, our long-range prediction. As we get better with computers, it will even get better. It’s the ability to plan out in weeks and months, based on prediction, as opposed to just days or weeks is monumental."

Why NOAA does what it does...

"There are a lot of people that live in areas that are affected by weather. Sometimes you cannot give ample warning in time for that volume of people to move. You look at a place like the Outer Banks – primarily, you’ve got two bridges. If you’re going to move all those people out of the Outer Banks, you need ample time. The bridge on the north side is a four-lane bridge, and you’ve got a four-lane highway that takes you up into Virginia. The one on the south side, I think, is a four-lane bridge, but that turns into a two-lane road through North Carolina. So when you start talking about having to move people, prediction becomes very important, and the quality of that is important. I think NOAA has really done a good job in the quality of the predictions that they do. I see it only getting better with time. This is an exciting agency to work with. The environment is unpredictable. That’s why we’re in the prediction business. If we had the perfect model, you wouldn’t need all of us. [laughter] We don’t have the perfect model. That’s what we’re striving for, so it’s pretty exciting."

The importance of connections to enhance your career...

"So where is NOAA going in the future? I think NOAA’s mission is clear. It’s the environment, period. Period. Ocean floor to the sun, period. What can we improve upon? It’s dealing with what we need to continue to improve about the way we detect, measure, and report, because it’s about minimizing the loss of life – being informative to the public, to the world, to minimize the loss of life. I think that’s why so many people are fascinated by NOAA and want to come work for NOAA in various capacities. Me? I just kind of tripped into working for NOAA, thanks to a frat brother. But there’s a lot of people, and people have reached out to me, and I connected them to other people even in different line offices for potential possibilities. That is also one of the beauties of the LCDP [Leadership Competencies Development Program]. We’re such a vast network within NOAA of talent and skills. It’s rewarding to know that you can reach out to another LCDP graduate and say, “Hey, I got a person here. They’re interested in something that you’re doing in your particular area.” The response you always get – “Hey, give them my number. Let me talk to them.” Because if somebody’s interested in something that we do for NOAA, the last thing we want to do is turn them away, because potentially that’s our future."

Resources and Additional Reading

• Full transcripts and audio recordings of Molly Graham interview with Albert “Benjie” Spencer