It is quite likely that Biddeford's West-Point Stevens plant would have shut down during the 1960s if it hadn't been for Francis Spencer. He was responsible for inventing the Vellux blanket, which became the company's mainstay for many years.
Vellux is a synthetic that is very light-weight, yet durable, insulates well, and feels soft as velvet. The name derives from "vel" for velvet, and "lux" from the Latin for light. The blanket material consists of two layers of foam melted onto a net and covered with nylon flock, requiring no weaving at all. Francis Spencer's name is on patents for both the machines and the process of making Vellux blankets.
Francis Spencer grew up on his 1000-acre family farm in Arundel, and even as a
boy was interested in everything mechanical. Unable to afford college during the Depression years, he began working at Pepperell at the age of 17. He would work from 6:45 a.m. until 10:00 p.m. in order to prove himself, and he moved from one department to another learning the ropes. When he developed "cotton fever" from the dust in the picker room, he tied a towel around his head to stop his nose bleeds so that he could continue working.
In 1957, at the age of 44, Francis Spencer was named product development manager at Pepperell, with the charge of designing a new blanket that would be so unusual and superior that it could keep the factory open in hard times. He led employees in conducting 4,039 experiments over a period of nine years, and finally the first Vellux blankets were produced just before Christmas in 1966. The process required a considerable investment in new equipment by Pepperell Manufacturing, but the commitment to research and the community resulted in a competitive and profitable new product.
Mr. Spencer and his wife Anne were married for more than 60 years, and had a son and a daughter. In 1984 he received an honorary doctorate of economics from the University of New England. He died in 2004 at the age of 90.
