Joe Spurlock, law professor, former judge and Texas House representative, dies at 82
In an age of specialization, former Judge Joe Spurlock II was a true Renaissance man.
Spurlock, 82, died Tuesday. He was born in 1938 in Fort Worth to Clarice Spurlock, the first woman elected to the Fort Worth City Council in 1953, and father, Joe C. Spurlock, who was also a trial and appellate court judge who helped create the Texas Trial Lawyers Association.
Spurlock’s grandfather, Sheriff Joe G. Spurlock of Throckmorton County, died in 1910, two days after being shot while attempting to serve a warrant.
Otis Rogers, his great-uncle, was a Fort Worth attorney, as was his brother, Dean Spurlock.
Spurlock seemed destined for a legal career, but apparently he also excelled as a friend and a family man.
“He was an awesome big brother,” Dean Spurlock said. “I could talk to him about anything. He was a go-to guy. He was a good counselor and that’s what he’s been doing all his life.”
Dean Spurlock said his brother would be most proud of helping a new Mongolian democracy overhaul its legal system. Because of that work, Spurlock made friends who lived halfway around the world and got to share another passion with them — hunting.
“They would take him into the Gobi desert in the middle of the night, hand him an AK-47 and want him to shoot,” Dean Spurlock said.
When judges from Mongolia would visit Texas, they would go hunting here, Dean Spurlock said.
According to an article in the Fort Worth Magazine, Mongolian leaders attempted to enlist the help of several East Coast universities for assistance in reforming their judicial system, but were turned down.
In the former judge, Mongolian leaders found a kindred spirit, and his work with them lasted more than two decades, according to Spurlock’s Curriculum Vitae. Spurlock was 62 when he took on that challenge, the Fort Worth Magazine article stated.
During a 2010 visit to Fort Worth, former Mongolian Justice G. Ganzorig said his country was eternally grateful for Spurlock’s help, according to the magazine story.
Spurlock was a professor at Texas Wesleyan University law school, which later became Texas A&M University School of Law in Fort Worth where he was also a professor.
He also served three terms in the Texas House of Representatives, where he spearheaded an effort to turn the bill allowing motorists to make right turns during red lights into law.
Spurlock was a judge, lawyer, civic advisor, a Boy Scout Master and District Chairman and Council committee member and regional representative for the Boy Scouts of America.
In the U.S. Army, Spurlock was awarded the Bronze Star Medal for his service in Vietnam and was active in his church, where he taught adult Sunday school.
The Army trained Spurlock in Alaska and then sent him to serve in Vietnam where he became a captain and worked in military intelligence, his daughter, Allison Spurlock, said.
“He told me his training in Alaska was something that the military was in dire need of in the jungles of Vietnam,” Allison said.
Spurlock was a people person and felt that he had so much more to do, his daughter said. Her father was the person they went to in a crisis who would do his best to fix things. Whenever the family needed him, he would drop everything to be by their side, his daughter said.
“I’ve talked to so many former students, lawyers, congressmen, professors, and there was not a person who did not love him,” Allison said.
Spurlock is survived by by his wife, Cheri Spurlock, of Fort Worth; his brother, Dean Spurlock, also of Fort Worth; sister, Kay Spurlock Heizer of Camp Verde, TX; daughters, Allison Spurlock, of Clifton, and Katy Spurlock, Nikki Armendariz, Suzy Spurlock, all of Fort Worth.
Spurlock was predeceased by his son, Joe Spurlock III, who died in 2005. Services are pending.
This story was originally published June 11, 2020 at 5:30 AM.
