People

Notable public figures named Spurlin.

• Al Spurlin · People strong
  Alton Pearce "Al" Spurlin (1914–2000) was an American minor league first baseman from Atlanta who played for the Chattanooga Lookouts in 1935 and the Columbia Senators in 1936.
• Andrew Barclay Spurling (Spurling variant) · People mixed
  Andrew Barclay Spurling (1833–1906) was a Union cavalry officer from the Cranberry Isles, Maine, and a brevet brigadier general. He received the Medal of Honor for capturing Confederate soldiers near Evergreen, Alabama, in 1865, and is buried in Rosehill Cemetery, Chicago.
• Arthur Spurling (Spurling variant) · People strong
  Arthur Rowe Spurling (1896–1984) was a Bermudian infantryman and airman who became a First World War flying ace with six credited victories. He won the Distinguished Flying Cross for a 1918 action in which he and his observer fought their way through a formation of about thirty German fighters.
• Ashley Spurlin · People strong
  Ashley Spurlin is a U.S. Air Force combat controller and Bronze Star recipient who competed on season 2 of History Channel's Top Shot (2011).
• Bell & Spurling (Spurling variant) · People strong
  Bell & Spurling are an English comedy-music duo, Martin Bell and Johnny Spurling. They are best known for the 2001 football novelty single "Sven, Sven, Sven", which entered the UK Singles Chart at number seven.
• Bert Spurlin (assistant director) · People strong
  Bert Spurlin (1899–1957) was a Kentucky-born Hollywood property man and assistant director. He is credited on films from the 1930s to the 1950s and on 88 episodes of the television comedy Our Miss Brooks.
• Bill Spurlin (broadcast engineer) · People strong
  William J. "Bill" Spurlin is a Boston radio engineer who was WBCN's chief engineer in 1971–72, ran maintenance and transmission at WGBH-FM in the mid-1980s, and later worked on satellite radio distribution and digital audio broadcasting at The Christian Science Monitor.
• Bob Spurlin (baseball) · People strong
  Robert Eugene "Bob" Spurlin (born 1958) is an American former minor league catcher, drafted by the San Francisco Giants in 1980 out of Northern Illinois University, who played in the Giants and Pirates systems through 1984.
• Bob Spurlin (minister) · People mixed
  Robert Dean "Bob" Spurlin (1945–2016) was an Alabama-born preacher in the Churches of Christ and the author of inspirational books, including Tackling Life's Troubles (2000) and Don't Ever Give Up (2003), published by Sain Publications.
• Brittany Spurlin · People strong
  Brittany Spurlin is an American games journalist, writer and editor. IMDb credits her as a writer on Dare Package (2020) and a segment producer on Camp VENN (2021), and she has written for Screen Rant, Fandom and Ubisoft.
• Caleb Spurlin · People strong
  Caleb Spurlin is an American former college football defensive end from Galax, Virginia. A three-time state champion wrestler, he walked on at Appalachian State, where he tied the school record of 66 career games (2017–2021).
• Carl Spurlin Dekle (WWII veteran, viral interview) · People mixed
  Carl Spurlin Dekle (1922–2022) was a Florida Marine and World War II veteran whose tearful interview on his 100th birthday was widely shared, and reposted again in 2025–26. Spurlin, his middle name, was his mother's maiden name.
• Chris Spurlin (Oxford, Alabama) · People strong
  Chris Spurlin is a Baptist pastor and former police officer who has served on the Oxford, Alabama, city council since 2008. He holds the Place 4 seat and is council president.
• Chris Spurling (Spurling variant) · People strong
  Chris Spurling (born 1977) is an American former Major League Baseball relief pitcher who played for the Detroit Tigers and Milwaukee Brewers from 2003 to 2007.
• Cindy Shore Spurlin · People strong
  Cindy Shore Spurlin is a former Abraham Baldwin Agricultural College (ABAC) softball player. She was a 1992 NJCAA All-American, set several school single-season records and entered the ABAC Athletic Hall of Fame in 2026.
• Claribel Spurling (Spurling variant) · People strong
  Claribel Spurling (1875–1941) was an English history teacher and headmistress who became a First World War codebreaker with British military intelligence (MI1(b)). She was the only candidate to score 100% on its supposedly impossible entrance test, and later worked for the Government Code and Cypher School.
• Corey Spurlin · People mixed
  Corey Spurlin is an American conductor and music educator who has directed the Auburn University Marching Band since 2007. He was briefly a finalist for the Ohio State marching band post in 2015.
• David Spurlin (painter) · People weak
  David Spurlin Jr. (1923–2009) was a Los Angeles-born impressionist landscape and seascape painter and member of the California Art Club whose oils appear at regional auctions.
• Dillon Spurlin (musician) · People mixed
  Dillon Spurlin is a self-produced singer-songwriter from Detroit Lakes, Minnesota, who records and performs as "Spurlin" and released the album Hard Way in 2024. He has also played leading roles in Fargo–Moorhead musical theatre.
• Don Spurlin (Albertville developer and candidate) · People strong
  Don Spurlin is an Albertville, Alabama, builder, developer and founder of Don Spurlin Construction. He finished second in the 2008 Albertville mayoral race and lost the 2010 Republican runoff for Alabama Senate District 9 to Clay Scofield.
• Dudley Spurling (Spurling variant) · People strong
  Sir Dudley Spurling (1913–1986) was a Bermudian lawyer, 1936 Olympic swimmer, 1934 Empire Games discus thrower and Speaker of the House of Assembly of Bermuda (1972–76). He was a founding partner of the law firm now called Appleby.
• Dwaine Spurlin · People strong
  Dwaine Spurlin is a San Francisco jazz saxophonist, flutist, composer and leader of the Dwaine Spurlin Band (DSB). He played saxophone on LPs by Karlton Hester and Kwaku Dadey in the early 1980s and has led his own groups in the Bay Area since at least 1984.
• Ed Spurlin · People strong
  Ed Spurlin is a former Auburn University football player from Opp, Alabama. He was listed as a quarterback in 1984, when he played in 12 games, and as a linebacker in 1985.
• Emily Spurlin (pastry chef) · People strong
  Emily Spurlin is a Chicago pastry chef who was a James Beard Award semifinalist for Outstanding Pastry Chef. She founded the pastry business sourbittersalty and has a sizeable following on Instagram.
• Frances Spurlin (congressional caseworker) · People strong
  Frances Spurlin was a constituent services representative for Alabama's 2nd congressional district from 1985 to 2013, working for three successive U.S. representatives. She was honored in the Congressional Record on her retirement.
• Greg Spurling (Spurling variant) · People strong
  Greg Spurling is a former American college basketball center from Knoxville, Tennessee. The Phoenix Suns drafted him in the fifth round in 1986, and he later signed with the Suns and the Chicago Bulls, but he was waived each time and never played in an NBA game.
• Gwen Cottle Spurlin · People strong
  Gwendolyn "Gwen" Cottle Spurlin (1937–2022) was a Tifton High School basketball star. She scored 700 points in the 1954–55 season and was inducted into the Tift County Athletic Hall of Fame a week before her death.
• Harold M. Spurlin · People strong
  Harold Morton Spurlin (1905–1992) was a cellulose and polymer chemist at the Hercules Powder Company from at least 1929. He was named on some 44 Hercules patents filed between 1929 and 1969, co-edited the standard reference Cellulose and Cellulose Derivatives (2nd ed., from 1954), and received the Anselme Payen Award in 1964.
• Hilary Spurling (Spurling variant) · People strong
  Hilary Spurling (born 1940) is an English biographer known for her two-volume life of Henri Matisse and biographies of Ivy Compton-Burnett, Pearl Buck and Anthony Powell.
• J. T. Spurlin (Baptist pastor) · People strong
  Dr. J. T. Spurlin (1908–2000) was a Southern Baptist pastor from Kentucky. He organized the First Baptist Church of Juneau, Alaska, in 1946 and presided over the first annual sessions of the Alaska Baptist Convention.
• Jack Spurlin (country singer) · People strong
  Jack Spurlin was an American country singer-songwriter who released small-label 45 rpm singles in Virginia around 1969–1970, including the Vietnam-era "Soldier's Prayer / Send Me Back To Viet Nam", and wrote songs for other Hillbilly Heaven artists.
• Jack Spurling (Spurling variant) · People strong
  Jack Spurling (1870–1933) was an English marine painter known for his paintings of clipper ships and his covers for The Blue Peter magazine.
• James Clinton Spurlin (Methodist minister) · People strong
  Rev. James Clinton "Clint" Spurlin (1890–1984), born at Ennice, North Carolina, was a Methodist minister in the Holston Conference in southwestern Virginia for 43 years.
• Jeremy Spurlin · People strong
  Jeremy Spurlin is an American guitarist listed as lead guitarist of the Christian metal band Disciple from 2001 to 2005.
• Jimmy Spurlin · People strong
  James Kenneth "Jimmy" Spurlin Sr. (1935–2006) was a coach, banker and local official in Tifton, Georgia, who chaired the Tift County Commission and was honored by the Tift County (2016) and ABAC (class of 2022) athletic halls of fame.
• John Spurling (Spurling variant) · People strong
  John Spurling (born 1936) is a Kenyan-born English playwright, novelist and art critic who won the 2015 Walter Scott Prize for The Ten Thousand Things.
• Johnny Spurlin · People strong
  Johnny Spurlin is a Tifton, Georgia, lawyer and longtime basketball coach at Tift County High School. He was named head boys' coach in 2005, took the Blue Devils to the 2007 state Final Four, and later returned as an assistant to Tommy Blackshear.
• Joshua Spurlin · People strong
  Joshua Spurlin is an American wrestler from Galax, Virginia. He won four Virginia high school state titles from 2016 to 2019 and then wrestled for Appalachian State.
• Kathleen Spurlin (prison chaplain) · People strong
  Sister Kathleen Spurlin, BVM (1925–2023), was a Minnesota-born Catholic sister and teacher who became senior chaplain at the South Mississippi Correctional Institution near Leakesville.
• LaTarsha Spurlin · People mixed
  LaTarsha Spurlin is an independently published American fiction author whose books include Regular Girl (2019), Female He (2020) and King (2020).
• Linda Spurlin · People strong
  Linda S. Spurlin is the Alaskan breeder who developed the Alaskan Klee Kai, a small husky-type dog breed, from the 1970s onward. She applied to trademark the name Klee Kai in 1991.
• Logan Spurlin · People strong
  Logan Spurlin (born 1994) is an American former baseball first baseman and catcher from the Chicago area who played four seasons at Northern Kentucky University and independent professional baseball in 2016.
• Mark Spurlin (Pike Road mayoral candidate) · People strong
  Mark Spurlin, a residential builder, ran for mayor of Pike Road, Alabama, in 2025. He lost to longtime incumbent Gordon Stone by 52 votes in the official canvass, 1,567 to 1,515.
• Mary Jane Spurlin · People strong
  Mary Jane Spurlin (1883–1970) was a lawyer who became Oregon's first woman judge in 1926 when appointed to the Multnomah County District Court.
• Max Spurlin (American football) · People strong
  Max Leland Spurlin (1923–2001) was a guard for the University of North Carolina in the 1940s who also played for the 1944 Great Lakes Navy team and was on the 1949 roster of the Charlotte Clippers, a minor-league professional team.
• Notable Spurlins · People strong
  An index of notable people surnamed Spurlin, with related Spurling-surname figures listed separately as variants.
• Paul Merrill Spurlin · People strong
  Paul Merrill Spurlin (1902–1994) was an American scholar of French literature who taught at the University of Michigan and wrote on how the French Enlightenment was received in America, including Montesquieu in America (1940) and Rousseau in America (1969).
• Paul Spurlin (minister and podcaster) · People mixed
  Paul Spurlin is a Church of Christ minister in Marietta, Georgia. He hosts The Paul Spurlin Show and other podcasts produced by Ministry League.
• Pearce Spurlin III · People strong
  Pearce Spurlin III is an American college football tight end, a four-star Georgia signee whose career was halted by a heart condition in 2024 before he returned with Colorado State in 2026.
• R. G. Spurling (Spurling variant) · People strong
  Richard Green Spurling (1858–1935) was an American minister and a founder of the Christian Union movement in Tennessee, from which the Church of God (Cleveland, Tennessee) grew.
• Ralph Spurlin Jr. (songwriter) · People strong
  Ralph Spurlin Jr. was an American lyricist of the 1950s who wrote songs with the Boston songwriter Arthur Korb, including "The Prince of Players" (recorded in 1958 by Tommy Frederick and the Hi-Notes and later by Jimmy Lloyd and John E. Paul) and "The Iron Horse".
• Robert E. Spurlin (Kentucky utility regulator) · People strong
  Robert E. Spurlin, a lawyer from Richmond, Kentucky, served on the Kentucky Public Service Commission from 1972 to 1976 and again from 2001 to 2004, and directed the state's workers' compensation Special Fund in the 1990s.
• Robert Parker Spurlin (Berryville dentist) · People mixed
  Dr. Robert Parker Spurlin (1879–1948) was a Kentucky-born dentist who practised in Berryville, Arkansas, from 1903 and served on its town council. His son, Dr. R. P. Spurlin Jr. (1914–1993), was appointed in 1940 as director of the Arkansas State Board of Health's newly budgeted dental-hygiene sub-division.
• Roy Glenwood Spurling (Spurling variant) · People strong
  Roy Glenwood Spurling (1894–1968) was an American neurosurgeon who described the Spurling test for cervical nerve-root compression and led U.S. Army neurosurgery in World War II.
• Ryan Spurling (Spurling variant) · People strong
  Ryan Spurling is the elected sheriff of Mason County, Washington, the 41st in the office's history. He ran for the office in 2022 after a 25-year career with the Washington State Patrol and is a candidate for re-election in 2026.
• Sam Spurlin (organizational designer) · People mixed
  Sam Spurlin is an organizational-design consultant and writer. He was the first employee of The Ready, co-hosts the podcast At Work with The Ready, and founded the work-design practice Deliberate Works.
• Sir John Spurling (Spurling variant) · People strong
  Sir John Spurling (born 1939) is a British businessman who built up the pet insurer Pet Protect and founded PetPartners. He was appointed OBE in 2000 and KCVO in 2012 for charitable services.
• Spurlin candidates in recent elections · People strong
  People surnamed Spurlin who appear as candidates in Ballotpedia, local election records and news coverage from 2008 to 2026, including two Albertville, Alabama, races by builder Don Spurlin and local races in California, Indiana and Kentucky.
• Spurling athletes in Britain and Australia (variant spelling) · People strong
  Sportsmen and sports figures with the related surname Spurling outside the United States. They include the England rugby international Aubrey Spurling (1856–1945), the Footscray footballers Bill Spurling (1907–1972) and Bob Spurling, the Australian lightweight rower Stephen Spurling and his mother, the Tasmanian rowing administrator Marj Spurling, and the English rugby hooker Scott Spurling.
• Spurling photographers of Tasmania (variant spelling) · People strong
  Four members of the Spurling family, across three generations, worked as photographers in Tasmania from the mid-19th century until 1941. Stephen Spurling II (1847–1924) ran a leading Launceston studio. His son Stephen Spurling III (1876–1962) pioneered Tasmanian wilderness photography, and Tasmania's Mount Spurling bears the family name.
• Spurling public officials (variant spelling) · People strong
  Minor public officials and candidates with the related surname Spurling, including a 19th-century Maine postmaster, a 2004 Democratic National Convention alternate, a North Carolina town councilman and school-board member, and a Georgia county coroner.
• Spurlins in academia and science · People strong
  A roundup of scholars, scientists and faculty surnamed Spurlin, including the Enlightenment historian Paul Merrill Spurlin, the Hercules cellulose chemist Harold M. Spurlin and the literary scholar William J. Spurlin.
• Spurlins in public service · People strong
  A roundup of people surnamed Spurlin (and, separately, Spurling) in government, politics, the military and the courts, from a 19th-century Indiana sheriff to a Kentucky utility commissioner and recent local candidates, with links to the individual articles.
• Stella Bodey (née Spurlin) · People mixed
  Stella Bodey (1905–1971), born Stella Spurlin, was a California ceramicist who ran Spurlin Ceramics of Lynwood and, working with Oceanic Arts, made some of the earliest tiki mugs, drink bowls and lamp figures for Polynesian restaurants.
• Steve Spurlin (basketball coach) · People strong
  Steve Spurlin is an American basketball coach who led the Blinn College men's basketball program in Brenham, Texas, for 11 seasons before resigning in August 2009.
• Terrence Spurlin · People strong
  Terrence Spurlin (born 1998) is an American former college baseball first baseman from Cypress, Texas, who played for Kansas State from 2018 to 2022 and was named Big 12 Player of the Week in 2019.
• Tommy Spurlin · People strong
  Tommy Spurlin (1928–2005) was an American country and rockabilly singer best known for the 1956 single "Hang Loose (I've Gotta Rock)" with his Southern Boys.
• Tracy Spurlin (singer) · People strong
  Tracy Spurlin is a soul singer who recorded "If You Could Read My Mind" with producer George Kerr on a 1986 Harbor Light Records 12-inch single, now a rare-groove collectible.
• Tyler Spurlin · People strong
  Tyler Spurlin (born 1991) is an American former minor league relief pitcher from Rice University who signed with the Milwaukee Brewers as a free agent in 2013 and pitched in their system through 2019, reaching Double-A Biloxi.
• Virgil Spurlin (band director) · People strong
  Virgil Spurlin was the band director at Hot Springs High School in Arkansas when Bill Clinton was a student there. Clinton publicly credited him several times as one of the music teachers who shaped him.
• Wendy Spurlin · People mixed
  Wendy Spurlin is a Colorado-based writer, illustrator and editor who founded the small publisher and production company ArmLin House.
• William J. Spurlin · People strong
  William J. Spurlin (born 1954) is an American-born literary scholar, Professor Emeritus of English and Comparative Literature at Brunel University London, known for work in queer and postcolonial studies. He is a different person from the recording artist William Spurlin and, apparently, from the Boston broadcast engineer Bill Spurlin.
• William Spurlin (digital music composer) · People weak
  William Spurlin is an independent recording artist on streaming services. He is known for the 2020 album Memories from the Vault, Vol. 1, which opens with "March of the Gladiators", and for a series of unofficial sports "anthem" singles. He is not the same person as the scholar William J. Spurlin.
• William V. Spurlin · People strong
  William V. Spurlin (1915–2007) was an inventor from Indiana, Pennsylvania, named on about 35 US patent documents for vibratory parts feeders, conveyors, power hammers and weighing equipment, assigned to Syntron, Link-Belt and FMC.