‘A man among men’
Friends, colleagues mourn Don Spurrell’s passing.
When those who knew Don Spurrell consider his brief life, the word “potential” comes to mind.
With his day-to-day work it was his nature to seize the challenge, to lend some “mind time” to a better way of doing things and to take the unwritten mandate that your chosen field can often present, and to run with it. Those who knew him well will also reflect on what he might have achieved in terms of his goals and wishes for his family and his personal fulfilment.
Spurrell was a month away from his 40th birthday when he died June 3 at Pleasant View Towers, the long-term care facility in St. John’s. He had languished for more than a year. He leaves behind his wife, Kerri Lynn (Walsh), two children, Rachel and Logan, his parents, two brothers, parents-in-law, extended family and numerous friends.
“The thing that drew me to Don was his caring nature,” says Chris Porter, who knew Spurrell well through school, into university and beyond. “I remember so well when I visited him when he was first confined to hospital. That whole environment made me uncomfortable and I guess it was obvious to Don, because while I was there to ask him how he was, he was concerned about me, about my comfort level. He exemplified the true definition of a friend — if you had to call someone for something, for anything, well, that would certainly be Don.”
When Spurrell was first taken ill in 2014, he was director of sales for Atlantic Canada and Saskatchewan with Transcontinental, a publishing, media and marketing company based in Montreal. He believed passionately in the value of advertising to foster business growth. Armed with a business degree — but, of equal importance, an interest in people of all stripes, and a strong entrepreneurial spirit — he was a natural in his chosen career.
His work frequently took him away from home. Friend and Telegram advertising coworker Todd Foote remembers a hotel breakfast on one business trip when Spurrell opened his case and produced two small teddy bears. He placed them on the restaurant table and asked Todd to take a picture of him with the bears, explaining, “When I leave home on a trip, the kids always give me teddy bears to take with me. I get a picture taken when I reach my destination and I send it back to them.”
His brother, Doug Spurrell, saw Don as “a man among men.” Doug refers to Don’s dedication to his career, not just in what was required on an ongoing basis, but the rules and channels of that work, always with a view to improving them and making things more productive and effective.
On the personal side, Doug says the biggest thing Don wanted to be in life was the best of dads. Doug lists Don’s priorities: “his kids, his wife and his career.”
And Doug echoes Chris Porter’s view that Don would do anything for anybody.
“In a sense,” says Doug, “he defied gravity. And I can say with honesty, the man lived five lives to most people’s one.”
It has been said that one of the characteristics of a truly good person is that they go that extra mile. That was evident in Spurrell in ways big and small; he not only bought Lego blocks for his two young children, but he sat down with them and helped them build things.
A celebration of Don Spurrell’s life is being held at 2 p.m. today at Barrett’s Chapel on Commonwealth Avenue in Mount Pearl.