Dr. Paul E. Spangler (March 18, 1899 – March 29, 1994) was a retired

U.S. Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the maritime service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is the world's most powerful navy with the largest displacement, at 4.5 million tons in 2021. It has the world's largest aircraft ...

surgeon, who took up the sport of

running Running is a method of terrestrial locomotion by which humans and other animals move quickly on foot. Running is a gait with an aerial phase in which all feet are above the ground (though there are exceptions). This is in contrast to walkin ...

at the age of 67.

Early life

Spangler was born on March 18, 1899, in

Oregon Oregon ( , ) is a U.S. state, state in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States. It is a part of the Western U.S., with the Columbia River delineating much of Oregon's northern boundary with Washington (state), Washington, while t ...

. He graduated from the

University of Oregon The University of Oregon (UO, U of O or Oregon) is a Public university, public research university in Eugene, Oregon, United States. Founded in 1876, the university is organized into nine colleges and schools and offers 420 undergraduate and gra ...

and the

Harvard Medical School Harvard Medical School (HMS) is the medical school of Harvard University and is located in the Longwood Medical and Academic Area, Longwood Medical Area in Boston, Massachusetts. Founded in 1782, HMS is the third oldest medical school in the Un ...

. He joined the Navy for

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

. He was Chief of Surgery at the naval hospital near

Pearl Harbor Pearl Harbor is an American lagoon harbor on the island of Oahu, Hawaii, west of Honolulu. It was often visited by the naval fleet of the United States, before it was acquired from the Hawaiian Kingdom by the U.S. with the signing of the Reci ...

December 7, 1941 The attack on Pearl HarborAlso known as the Battle of Pearl Harbor was a surprise military strike by the Empire of Japan on the United States Pacific Fleet at its naval base at Pearl Harbor on Oahu, Hawaii, on December 7, 1941. At the time ...

. He retired from the Navy in 1959, then joined the charitable hospital ship

SS Hope SS ''Hope'' was a hospital ship operated by Project HOPE. This vessel was originally a US Navy hospital ship, . ''Consolation'' was donated to Project Hope in 1958, and under its new name served from 1960 until 1974, when she was retired. ''Hop ...

as its chief medical officer. He later moved to

San Luis Obispo, California ; ; ; Chumashan languages, Chumash: ''tiłhini'') is a city and county seat of San Luis Obispo County, California, United States. Located on the Central Coast (California), Central Coast of California, San Luis Obispo is roughly halfway betwee ...

, and took the job as Chief Surgeon at the nearby

California Men's Colony California Men's Colony (CMC) is an American male-only List of California state prisons, state prison located northwest of the city of San Luis Obispo, California, San Luis Obispo in San Luis Obispo County, California, along the central Californi ...

prison which he held for ten years until he "was retired" in 1969 "because he was too old."http://www.mastershistory.org/USMITT/1976-09-b-USMITT.pdf USMITT Sept. 1976 P13

Running career

Spangler was chairman of his chapter of the

American Heart Association The American Heart Association (AHA) is a nonprofit organization in the United States that funds cardiovascular medical research, educates consumers on healthy living and fosters appropriate Heart, cardiac care in an effort to reduce disability ...

. As a result of this, he felt that merely being a weekend athlete was not adequate to stave off heart disease. Spangler was well into his running program in 1975 when the Corona Del Mar Track Club held a meet in San Luis Obispo. He entered the mile, 2 mile and 3 mile. After running the mile he went home to rest. When he returned to the track, he was informed he had broken the world record. And "the bug hit him." In his late 70s his training schedule was a ten mile run at 5:30 a.m., six days a week. Spangler currently holds the American record for 90-year-olds in every metric distance race between

800 metres The 800 metres, or 800 meters (American and British English spelling differences#-re.2C -er, US spelling), is a common track running event. It is the shortest commonly run middle-distance running event. The 800 metres is run over two laps of a ...

and

10,000 metres The 10,000 metres or the 10,000-metre run is a common long-distance track running event. The event is part of the athletics programme at the Olympic Games and the World Athletics Championships, and is common at championship-level events. The ...

, including the 5,000 metre racewalk, with all records set in 1989 He also holds the 85-year-old record for 3,000 metres. He completed the

New York Marathon The New York City Marathon, currently branded as the TCS New York City Marathon for sponsorship reasons, is an annual marathon () that courses through the five boroughs of New York City. It is the largest marathon in the world, with 53,627 fin ...

later in 1989 and continued to train with the goal of competing at age 100. In his 28 year running career, Spangler claimed 85 national age group records at various distances. He was a pioneer into the limits of Senior athletics by frequently being the oldest competitor. paving the way for successors into the upper age brackets. He died shortly after turning 95 while doing one of his regular 7 mile training runs.

Honors

50 Plus Fitness, now called the Lifelong Fitness Alliance, a Senior Heath organization, hosts an annual 8 kilometre run for Seniors at

Stanford University Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University, is a Private university, private research university in Stanford, California, United States. It was founded in 1885 by railroad magnate Leland Stanford (the eighth ...

named in Spangler's honor. USA Track & Field (USATF) named its annual award for the outstanding Masters Long Distance Running athlete after Spangler. Spangler was elected into the

USATF Masters Hall of Fame The USATF Masters Hall of Fame is the Masters section of the National Track and Field Hall of Fame. It is intended to select worthy athletes from the various divisions of Masters athletics involved in the sports of track and field, road running an ...

in its second year, 1997.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Spangler, Paul American surgeons American masters athletes Track and field athletes from California 1899 births 1994 deaths American male long-distance runners Sportspeople from Southern California Track and field athletes from Eugene, Oregon Sportspeople from San Luis Obispo, California Harvard Medical School alumni University of Oregon alumni United States Navy personnel of World War II 20th-century American surgeons United States Navy Medical Corps officers Military personnel from California Military personnel from Oregon 20th-century American sportsmen