SILVERTHORNE, SPENCER V., JR.
WATERTOWN – Spencer V. Silverthorne of Beaver Falls, president of the Northern New York Trust Co. of Watertown, was killed in a plane crash near Homestead, Md. Friday [November 23, 1962].
He was enroute to a wedding in North Carolina when the four-engine turbo-prop plane in which he was riding to Augusta, Ga., from Newark, N.J., crashed and burned about 10 miles west of Baltimore.
Mr. Silverthorne assumed the presidency of the trust company on Oct. 1, 1962. He was also president of the Empire Stale Chamber of Commerce and was re-elected for a second term in October of this year. Mr. Silverthorne came to Northern New York from New York City about 1950 and was employed as a vice president and general counselor for the J. P. Lewis Co. in Beaver Falls.
He left the Lewis Company in the spring of 1962 to take a position as assistant general counsel at the General Foods Corp. in White Plains.
He was active in Chamber of Commerce affairs and was a member of the Greater Watertown Chamber of Commerce. A member of the American Legion, Mr. Silverthorne was a member of the Marine Corps during World War II. He entered the Corps as a private and was discharged a captain. He served in the South Pacific and was awarded the Silver Star.
Keith McHugh, New York Stale Commerce Commissioner, said in Albany Mr. Silverthorne’s death was a “distinct shock.”
McHugh said Mr. Silverthorne had been “an effective member of the business community of our state,” and had “rendered outstanding service as a member of the New York Job Development Authority.”
He was a graduate of Williams College and was a star football player while he was there. He graduated in 1939. He attended Yale Law School.
He was a commissioner of the Lewis County Baseball League, active in the Beaver Falls Methodist Church and an enthusiastic Civil War buff.
He was a former member of the Lewis County Republican Committee and was recently appointed to the New York State Job Development Authority by Gov. Nelson A. Rockefeller, a position described by Jefferson County Republican chairman as “very important and responsible.”
He reportedly bought a house on Paddock Street in Watertown in order to move his family into Watertown from Beaver Falls. They have not moved yet.
His survivors include his wife, Mrs. Holly Silverthorne; three sons, Spencer, John and Danny Silverthorne; his father, Spencer Silverthorne Sr., one of the survivors of the Titanic sinking, and a sister.