Paul Sprenger

Paul Sprenger was born on Sept. 8, 1940, in Stillwater, Minn. He received his bachelor’s degree and his law degree from the University of Michigan. Mr. Sprenger met Ms. Lang when they were on opposites sides of a case involving black employees of the Burlington Northern Railroad. He represented the workers, she the railroad, and they negotiated a settlement. They merged their practices in 1989, forming the firm Sprenger & Lang, with offices in Washington and Minneapolis, and married the next year. Mr. Sprenger learned he had prostate cancer 17 years ago and Parkinson’s disease seven years later, Ms. Lang said. His son, Steven, bought the firm in 2000, although Mr. Sprenger and Ms. Lang continued to do legal work for several years. The Minneapolis office closed in 2009, and the younger Mr. Sprenger, like the older, had stopped taking new cases, Ms. Lang said. But while cutting back on the law practice, Mr. Sprenger and Ms. Lang turned to philanthropy, together founding the Atlas Performing Arts Center on H Street in Washington and helping to revitalize its neighborhood. Besides his wife and son, Mr. Sprenger is survived by two daughters, Heidi and Sara; two stepchildren, Jessica Lang and Benjamin Alamar; 14 grandchildren; and one great-grandchild.