Brewton to honor Searcy

From the Amazon to Turtle Point Environmental Center in Flomaton, Dr. Darryl Searcy has left his mark on the botany world and the Meadorwood Garden Club and Garden Club of Brewton are honoring the local botanist with a reception today (Thursday) from 3 p.m. to 5 p.m. at the St. Maurice Catholic Church Parish Hall in Brewton.

Dr. Searcy, 83, was attending the University of Missouri when he enrolled in a microbiology class that led him to botany.

He moved to Brewton in 1978 and officially retired in Brewton in 1986.

Although world renowned for his work with plants, Dr. Searcy is being honored for his many contributions in and around the Brewton community.

It began when Elizabeth Edwards with the Brewton Tree and Beautification Board asked him to help select plants for what is now Jennings Park.

He also worked with Shirley West to pick the plants along the boardwalk at Turtle Point.

He helped Pfizer Pharmaceuticals collect native plants from the Amazon, Peru, Ecuador, India, Nigeria and other areas.

He noted plants taken from those areas some 60 to 70 years earlier were used to make medicines.

"A lot of things had changed in 60 or 70 years but they still had the coordinates where the original plants were located," Dr. Searcy said.

He said they went back to harvest new plants so new medicines could be developed.

Today, Dr. Searcy's work, or plant selections, can be seen all across the Brewton area. In 2010 he joined others to re-establish a recreational park and nature trail at the former Fort Crawford site on Murder Creek and in 2012 designed the nature trail at Pollard-McCall Jr. High School.

The garden clubs hosting the reception invite everyone to come pay tribute to Dr. Searcy.