After graduating from Camden Catholic High School, Mr. Spadea attended Temple University full-time for two years before switching to the night school for the next eight years in order to work full-time at his father's shop and support his family during his father's illness. Mr. Spadea's studies initially focused on business, but eventually changed to history and economics. Enjoying learning for its own sake and being a fan of electives, particularly in history and literature, Mr. Spadea did not ultimately complete his degree. Mr. Spadea had, however, in the meantime taken over and greatly expanded his father's business to include plants in Texas and Costa Rica.

Mr. Spadea spent most of his business career as a manufacturer of machined parts for the electronics and computer industries. During the 1980s, working with agencies of the U.S. Government, he become involved in the design and manufacture of automatic weapons. Mr. Spadea participated as a civilian expert in the arming of the Afghan Mujihadeen in their war for freedom against the Soviet invaders. In his capacity as a weapons manufacturer, he was also involved in other places of conflict with the Soviet Empire. In 2002, Mr. Spadea took over the day-to-day operations of his family's government-contracting company, where he brought into full production the Frequency Agile Transmitter, a radio device designed and developed by his son Tom. The device is now deployed by the U.S. military around the world. Although he has worked in a variety of industries in a number of positions, in the final analysis Mr. Spadea considers himself a production man. Whether producing electronic parts, radio transmitters or machine guns, he considers his natural habitat to be the factory floor.

Mr. Spadea is currently semi-retired and acts as a consultant to a number of family businesses. His work often takes him to South America, Asia and Eastern Europe. He intends nevertheless to soon make a complete career shift and open a used and rare books and maps store in Collingswood.

Mr. Spadea has had four sons, one of whom, Bill, ran against Rush Holt in 2004 for the 12th District U.S. Congressional seat. Mr. Spadea's influences can be summarized in descending order as free rationality, his Catholicism, fatherhood and U.S. citizenship. Mr. Spadea identifies the pre-New Deal Republic as the social and governmental ideal for the United States.