G. C. Spencer

At the 1904 Olympics, G. C. Spencer competed in the Double American Round on September 19 – his 64th birthday He finished 13th in that event but two days later helped his Potomac Archers team win the gold medal, thereby becoming the oldest American to ever win a gold medal. At the time of the 1904 Olympics, Spencer, a graduate of the College of the City of New York, lived in Greenwich, Connecticut where he was a retired minister of the Methodist Episcopal Church. Spencer was admitted to hospital for surgery just three weeks after his Olympic triumph and died seven days later. His obituary in the New York Times noted that he was an expert chess player.