Cliff Spohn - Eulogy

October 12, 1946 - October 28, 2025

My Dad was something else. And that’s how it must be with him. He had his own way of being him. To those who knew him well knew him as a kind and clever person, never far from making light of situations that life inevitably brings us into. He was always there for a laugh or a witty insight reminding us to never take anything too seriously. To those who just met him or casually knew him felt like they knew him for years. A gentle and soft spoken man who could talk to you for hours about anything.

Art was everything to my dad. He loved making art. Thinking of art. Everything he saw or touched was potential for a great masterpiece or simply a sketch or a small collage in a sketchbook. He was always creating.

He loved animals and nature. He’d tell stories of all the animals in his life (Duke and Duchess, Bullet, Ralph, Maddie to name a few) as if they were people that he knew. And in the 79 years on this earth he never (intentionally) killed a single spider. No matter how many times I’ve asked.

He loved my mom so much. They were soul mates.  My mom kept him anchored. Her steady and practical sensibility kept him grounded. They were inseparable. When he lost her in 2009, he was truly lost. She was his world.

I’ll miss him. I’ve missed him all the years that his illness took from him his memories and stories. I’ll miss his long conversations, his insightful guidance in the face of unknown challenges and pitfalls of life, his astonishingly accurate analogies, his sense of humor. He always knew how to make me laugh. I know he’ll live on in my heart, my memories, in his art, in his stories, in the summer thunderstorms that roar overhead and the crashing waves on the Oregon coast. Be good. Be careful. Safe journey….wherever you are.  I love you Dad. 

Blackbird

Blackbird singing in the dead of night,
Take these broken wings and learn to fly.
All your life,
You were only waiting for the moment to arise.

Blackbird singing in the dead of night,
Take these sunken eyes and learn to see.
All your life,
You were only waiting for the moment to be free.

Black bird fly, black bird fly
Into the light of the dark black night.

Black bird fly, black bird fly
Into the light of the dark black night.

Blackbird singing in the dead of night
Take these broken wings and learn to fly.
All your life

You were only waiting for this moment to arise
You were only waiting for this moment to arise
You were only waiting for this moment to arise