Blacks@Dartmouth 1775 to 1960

William K. Spears, 94, a former field engineer and technical writer for defense contractors worldwide who did part-time work in The Washington Post circulation department from the 1970s to the early 1990s, died Feb. 14 at the Mariner nursing home in Laurel. He had complications from a fall two weeks earlier at his home in Laurel.

William Kebren Spears was an Indianapolis native and a 1929 graduate of the city's Crispus Attucks High School, an all-black high school. He spent several years as a laborer and field hand during the Depression before receiving a scholarship to study at Dartmouth College, where he was a 1937 mathematics and French graduate. He taught math and French for two years at Attucks before serving in the Army Signal Corps in the Pacific during World War II. In the late 1940s, he served in the new Air Force. He retired from the Army Reserves as a captain in 1965.

Mr. Spears enjoyed winter sports and sharpshooting. He was a member of several international engineering societies and the National Rifle Association. He had no immediate survivors.