Robert Benjamin "Speck" Searcy, Jr. (January 8, 1901 – December 22, 1967) was an American politician who served as mayor of

Huntsville, Alabama Huntsville is the List of municipalities in Alabama, most populous city in the U.S. state of Alabama. The population of the city is estimated to be 241,114 in 2024, making it the List of United States cities by population, 100th-most populous ...

from 1952 to 1964. He was the mayor of Huntsville when President

Dwight D. Eisenhower Dwight David "Ike" Eisenhower (born David Dwight Eisenhower; October 14, 1890 – March 28, 1969) was the 34th president of the United States, serving from 1953 to 1961. During World War II, he was Supreme Commander of the Allied Expeditionar ...

established the

George C. Marshall Space Flight Center Marshall Space Flight Center (officially the George C. Marshall Space Flight Center; MSFC), located in Redstone Arsenal, Alabama ( Huntsville postal address), is the U.S. government's civilian rocketry and spacecraft propulsion research center ...

Redstone Arsenal Redstone Arsenal is a United States Army base adjacent to Huntsville, Alabama in the Wheeler National Wildlife Refuge. A census-designated place in Madison County, Alabama, United States, it is part of the Huntsville-Decatur Combined Statistica ...

, as the home for the

National Aeronautics and Space Administration The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agency of the US federal government responsible for the United States's civil space program, aeronautics research and space research. Established in 1958, it su ...

(NASA) on July 1, 1960. The center became the civilian base for Dr. Wernher von Braun who was the center's first Director, presiding from July 1960 to February 1970. Searcy is buried at Maple Hill Cemetery in Huntsville.

References

20th-century mayors of places in Alabama 1901 births 1967 deaths Mayors of Huntsville, Alabama {{Alabama-mayor-stub