By Ron Hayes
GULF STREAM — John E. Searle Jr., a president of The St. Andrew’s Club from 1991 to ’93, died Oct. 30. He was 88 and had owned a villa at the club since 1973.
“He was very active until six months before his death,” said his daughter, Kip Abbott. “He was constantly involved in both The St. Andrew’s Club and the Little Club, and very vocal in his opposition to the proposed sale of Briny Breezes. Everybody loved him. He was a true, caring, people person.”
Mr. Searle retired to The St. Andrew’s Club after a life of professional and personal accomplishment.
Born July 21, 1924, in New York City, he graduated from Phillips Academy Andover in 1942 and entered Yale University but dropped out to enlist in the Army Air Corps, where he served as a flight instructor.
In June 1945, he married Linda Saunders Bailey; his wife of 67 years, she survives him.
After the war, Mr. Searle graduated from the Sloan Business School at MIT, where he was captain of the swim team, and went to work for United-Carr Fastener, eventually becoming a vice president of worldwide sales.
The Searles lived in Marblehead Neck, Mass., where Mr. Searle was president of the Marblehead Neck Improvement Association and was a founding member of the Marblehead Racing Association and a board member of the Eastern Yacht Club.
In 1973, he contracted to have a villa built at St. Andrews and retired there in 1986.
While in Marblehead, Mr. Searle met Robert Burns, also a St. Andrews resident, when his granddaughter and Burns’ daughter attended the same school.
“He was one of those people who was very easygoing,” Burns said of his longtime friend and neighbor. “He was a very interesting man, and just so pleasant.”
In addition to his wife and daughter, he is survived by a son-in-law, John H. Abbott of Manchester-by-the-Sea, Mass., another daughter, Carol Searle Ley and her husband, Andrew, of Dedham, Mass.; and a granddaughter, Kelsey Abbott and her husband, Peter McDougall, of Freeport, Maine.
Donations in Mr. Searle’s memory may be made to Phillips Academy, 180 Main St., Andover, MA 01810.
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