WINDHAM – Friends of a longtime, past-president of the local Rotary club and Chamber of Commerce are mourning this week the tragic death of Ken Spooner.

Spooner, 67, who was a resident of Maine and Florida, was killed when a driver rear-ended his 2004 Honda Gold Wing motorcycle in Lakeland, Fla., early Saturday morning, July 24.

Spooner was best known as the motorcycle-riding Santa Claus who would roll into the then-Greater Windham Chamber of Commerce’s annual tree lighting event in the Windham Shopping Center, bringing smiles to those gathered to mark the start of the Christmas season. As Santa, on his trademark Gold Wing motorcycle bedecked with holiday tinsel and candy cane ornaments, Spooner would entertain the boys and girls.

Spooner, who spent 30-plus years in banking, was also known as one of the engines that drove the growth of the Windham Rotary Club (now known as the Sebago Lake Rotary Club) and Windham Chamber of Commerce (now Sebago Lakes Region Chamber of Commerce).

“Ken volunteered countless hours to the community,” remembers fellow Rotarian Tom Noonan. “He was a selfless man who didn’t have a bad bone in his body.”

State Sen. Bill Diamond, who worked with Spooner at the chamber of commerce, said Spooner was “always willing to donate his energy for the betterment of others. He was always ready to help. He’s going to be missed.”

Local real estate agent and longtime chamber member Ed Getty, who served on the Greater Windham Chamber of Commerce’s board of directors when Spooner was the president, said though Spooner had retired, “he always stopped in to see us when he came up to Maine, to touch base with his friends.”

Getty said Spooner was “extremely committed, to say the least, and spent a lot of hours” in service to the chamber. Retiring from the banking industry in 2003, Getty said Spooner “looked so forward” to retirement and that it was a “damn shame” he died so soon.

Spooner’s former boss at Evergreen Credit Union, Tucker Cole, also remembers Spooner as looking forward to retirement, so much so that it became a running joke at the bank. Spooner served as the marketing and public relations director at Evergreen, which was formerly S.D. Warren Credit Union.

“He had a great sense of humor. He was known throughout the state for that, especially his dream of retirement,” Cole said.

While he looked forward to the freedom retirement would provide, Cole also said Spooner wasn’t fixated on retirement. He said the hard-working Spooner loved his job and would be to work at 5 a.m., long before the rest of the staff. “And he had a one-hour commute,” Cole said.

According to Lakeland Police Department, the Nissan sedan that struck Spooner was traveling at a high rate of speed as it collided with Spooner’s motorcycle at 2:01 a.m. Saturday. After colliding with the motorcycle, the Nissan flipped and came to rest on its roof after traveling approximately a quarter of a mile from the scene of the accident.

The driver of the vehicle, Damian Kyle Hernandez, 22, fled on foot and was apprehended by Lakeland Police Officer Aaron Peterman and his K-9. Hernandez was arrested on a felony charge of leaving the scene of a fatality without rendering aid, a misdemeanor charge of battery on a police dog, and another misdemeanor charge of resisting arrest without violence. Hernandez was treated at a local medical center for minor, non-life threatening injuries, and then transported to Polk County Jail.

A passenger of the vehicle, Jeremy Andrew Edinger, 24, received minor, non-life-threatening injuries as a result of the crash. No charges have yet been filed regarding Spooner’s death. Lakeland police say the investigation remains ongoing, and additional charges may be filed.

Always ready to lend a hand, Ken Spooner helps to repaint the railing on the Naples Causeway in the early 2000s. Spooner died earlier this week as the result of a motorcycle accident in Florida. (Courtesy photo)