  We use rook placements to prove Spivey's Bell number formula and other
identities related to it, in particular, some convolution identities involving
Stirling numbers and relations involving Bell numbers. To cover as many special
cases as possible, we work on the generalized Stirling numbers that arise from
the rook model of Goldman and Haglund. An alternative combinatorial
interpretation for the Type II generalized $q$-Stirling numbers of Remmel and
Wachs is also introduced in which the method used to obtain the earlier
identities can be adapted easily.
