[1][2][3][4][5][6][7] He served as the Chief Executive Officer and President of G. D. Searle & Co from 1970 to 1977, and as its Chairman from 1977 until its merger with Monsanto in 1985.
[1] He served in the United States Navy Reserve and in 1950 graduated from Yale University, where he played polo.
[1] In 1962, Searle helped finance Donald Rumsfeld's successful campaign for United States House of Representatives from Illinois's 13th congressional district.
[4] Searle was an early member of the board of directors of Donors Trust, a donor-advised fund.
[2] Kimberly O. Dennis is the president and chief executive officer of the Searle Freedom Trust.
In 2024 a CNN analysis found that Searle Freedom Trust had distributed $200 million to conservative non-profits in the previous decade.
[1][4] They lived in Hobe Sound, Florida and maintained his parents's family home in Winnetka, Illinois.
[17] In 1996, heirs to concentration camp victims sued him in connection with a Degas painting that had been seized from their family in World War II.