John Gideon Searle

John Gideon Searle was born March 18, 1901, in Iowa.[1][2] His paternal grandfather was Gideon Daniel Searle, founder of G. D. Searle & Company in 1888.[1][4] His father, Claude Howard Searle, served as president of the family business after his grandfather's death in 1917.[1] He began working for the family business at the age of fourteen, working every summer through high school and college.[1] He graduated from the University of Michigan with a Bachelor of Science in pharmacy.[1][4]

At Searle, he worked as a buyer in 1923, and then was appointed office manager and treasurer.[1] In 1931, he became vice president and general manager of Searle, up until 1966.[1] To remain competitive during the Great Depression, he reduced its product lines and focused on successful products such as Aminophyllin, Metamucil and Dramamine.[1] He also launched the first oral contraceptive drug Enovid in 1957.[2][3] He moved its headquarters to Skokie, Illinois, in 1942.[4]

In 1966, his son Daniel C. Searle became president of Searle.[1] His other son, William L. Searle, as well as his son-in-law, Wes Dixon, also worked for the company.[4]

In 1964, he set up the Searle Fund at The Chicago Community Trust.[3] The Searle Family Trust later created the Searle Scholars Program.[3][4]

He was inducted in the American National Business Hall of Fame.[1] Northwestern University and Yale University have endowed professorships named for him.[5][6] The John G. Searle Chair at the American Enterprise Institute, named in his honor, is currently held by Michael R. Strain.[7] Assistant professorships named after Searle exist in all departments at the University of Michigan School of Public Health.

He died in 1978.[1][3]