Kent Spreckelmeyer was born in 1950 in St. Joseph, Missouri. He was raised in and graduated from the farming community of Oregon, MO. Graduating from high school in 1968, he began the bachelor of architecture five-year program at the University of Kansas that same year. His instructors included Curtis Besinger, William Max Lucas, Charlie Kahn, and Rich Solomon, among others.

Spreckelmeyer attended KU on an Air Force ROTC scholarship. After he graduated he was commissioned a second lieutenant and, after a year-long stint at University College London in London, England, he served as base architect at George Air Force Base in Victorville, California.

After Spreckelmeyer's discharge as a captain in 1978, he went to the University of Michigan to complete his doctorate in architecture. Upon completing his dissertation in 1981, Spreckelmeyer was hired by the School of Architecture at KU.

Spreckelmeyer taught a variety of courses at KU at the graduate and undergraduate level. He led the School in its development of masters and doctoral programs in architecture, serving in various leadership and chair roles for graduate studies and planning committees. In 1995 he was appointed Chair of Architecture, which position he held until 1997; during his tenure, he struggled with a variety of teaching personnel staffing issues but was also able to form what would eventually become Studio 804. Spreckelmeyer also held a visiting professorship at the University of Edinburgh in the 1980s.

Kent Spreckelmeyer is a Fellow of the American Institute of Architects (AIA) since 2000 and a member of the Environmental Design Research Association (EDRA). He has won research awards from the National Endowment for the Arts and AIA and was a 2009 William T. Kemper Fellowship for Teaching Excellence winner, as well as the 2010 Kansas City AIA Educator of the Year. He is licensed to practice architecture in Missouri and California.