Mr. Spectorsky was born in Paris of American parents, on Aug. 13, 1910. He was given the first two names of Auguste Comte, but he rarely used the names, preferring the initials. To friends he was known as “Spec.”
His parents, who were primarily educators, were multi-lingual, and the boy spoke only French until he was 4 years old.
When his parents moved to New York City while he was still a youngster, he attended the Ethical Culture School and the Columbia Grammar School. Graduation from the latter in 1929 was followed by a year of “various and menial” duties, as he later termed them, at Columbia Pictures in Holly wood. On his return he entered New York University, majoring in physics and earning a B.S. in 1934.
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