Vintage Humor from Doctor Born in 1899
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- Опубліковано 21 сер 2024
- I was honored to meet Paul in 1985 and was blessed to know him for the last ten years of his life.
He graciously accepted my invitations to come to New Mexico for running events along with presenting at a conference I organized in 1989. This video is taken from the speech he gave there. Though he spoke for about 20 minutes I just wanted to highlight his great sense of humor. My suggestion to all is to Google this remarkable man and learn all about his mantra: pursue a "life of active optimism vs. one of passive despair". He was an inspiration to all. When he died on March 29, 1994, only 11 days after turning 95, it was doing something he loved: running in the early morning in his home town of San Luis Obispo. What follows is the obituary written shortly after his passing.
Paul Edwin Spangler was born 18 March 1899 Mitteneague, Mass., the only son of a
Congregational minister, who also had two daughters.
The family moved to Ohio and Oregon,
where Paul attended Eugene High School and the
University of Oregon.
He was a member of Beta
Theta Pi, Friars, and student-body president. He was
graduated from Harvard Medical School, Magna Cum Laude in
1923; married Clara Raymond
Spangler in 1924, by whom he had four children,
Barbara Kuhne of Northbrook, Illinois; Betty Nolen of
Belmont, California; Margot Krolczyk of North Palm
Beach, Florida and Paul A. Spangler of San Jose,
California.
He practiced general surgery in Portland where all of
his children were born, but was called to active duty
in the Navy Medical Corps Reserves in February of
1941 and was acting Chief of Surgery at the Naval
Hospital at Pearl Harbor when the Japanese
attacked. He retired from the Navy in 1959 and spent
the next two years as senior medical officer on the
S.S. Hope on its maiden voyage to the South Pacific.
He then worked in the prison hospital at the San Luis
Obispo Men's Colony from 1962 until his mandatory
retirement at age 70 in 1969.
He was divorced from Clara in 1962 and married his
college sweetheart, Barbara Sheppard Himmel, who
preceded him in death in 1982. He continued living
alone in the home they shared in San Luis, filling his
life with running, swimming, body-building, lecturing
and singing with the SPEBSOSA champions, the
Gold Coast Chorus.
He was also a member of a barbershop quartet, the Jolly Swagmen who
appeared with him on many of his national television
appearances, such as Prime Time Live.
He held more world age-group records than anyone
in the world from the 400 meter to the marathon and
looked forward to running the New York Marathon at age 100.
He was active in the Fifty Plus Fitness
Association, and the recipient of the Arete Award,
Senior Division, for Courage in Sports; the Golden
Shoe Award from "Runners' World": and had traveled
all over to the World Association of Veteran Athletes'
championship meets, where he most recently
competed in Miyazaki, Japan, returning with seven
gold medals.
In addition to his four children, Paul is survived by
fourteen grandchildren and 28 great-grandchildren.
There is definitely artfulness in knowing how to discuss "no-no" subjects with diplomacy and candor before a crowd. This gent could do that.
I laughed at the punchline, which surprised me.