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Gabriel Spanley, also known as “Gabe the Barber” for his service as a barber at Peter Bent Brigham Hospital, passed away Dec. 9, 2008. He was 91.
“He cut my hair when I was a kid and my father was on staff here in the early 1950s,” said David Brooks, MD, senior surgeon and director of Minimally Invasive Surgery. “When I came back as a resident and then an attending, I would go to him on Saturday mornings right before Grand Rounds, as did a lot of other folks.”
Mr. Spanley most recently set up his barber shop on the ground floor of the Nesson Pike in the A Building, where he cut hair for staff and patients until the 1970s. “He had a tremendous institutional memory of the hospital and a lot of stories to share,” Brooks said.
Mr. Spanley often was paged stat to the Emergency Room for neurosurgical emergencies. He spent his mornings going on rounds to shave patients who were too sick to do so themselves. “He was a Godsend to them,” said Andrew Jessiman, MD, former vice president of Clinical Affairs. “Then, he would take appointments in his office for the staff, and we doctors would meet there. It was nice.”
Gilbert Mudge, MD, director of BWH Cardiovascular Consultants, knew Mr. Spanley well, but never ended up in the barber’s chair. “Gabe was quick to criticize my coiffure,” recalled Mudge, who admitted to wearing his hair a little longer than one of Mr. Spanley’s cuts would allow. “Although I never let him cut it, I enjoyed seeing him every day. He was a real fixture of the hospital.”
As the hairstyles changed in the 1970s and men began wearing their hair longer, Mr. Spanley’s business slowed, and he switched careers to become a court officer in district and superior courts. On weekends, however, he continued to cut hair by appointment at the hospital.
Mr. Spanley also enjoyed his role as a justice of the peace and performed many weddings on the South Shore. “He always had wonderful stories of unusual weddings,” Mudge said. “He actually performed one wedding ceremony in a canoe.”
Mr. Spanley is survived by a daughter, Sandra A. Kehoe and her husband Daniel; grandsons Brian, Paul and Scott Kehoe; great-grandchildren Andrew and Bridget Kehoe; a sister, Susan Gandolfo; and several nieces and nephews. He was the beloved husband of the late Helen (Rydwanski) Spanley.
A funeral service was held on Dec. 15, and Mr. Spanley was buried in the Mayflower Cemetery in Duxbury. Donations may be made in his name to the Andrew and Bridget Kehoe Education Fund, Citizen’s Bank, MA-188, 160 Summer St., Kingston, MA 02364.