During his nearly half-century career in Vermont, Brian Searles developed a reputation as a modest but brilliant public servant — capable of efficiently managing the wide variety of organizations he led.
Searles died on June 5 in Tampa, Florida, at 77 years old. He had been receiving treatment for Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia before his death, according to an obituary prepared by his family.
After working his way up the ranks in Chittenden County law enforcement — including a stint as chief of the South Burlington Police Department — Searles jumped into state government to head then-Gov. Howard Dean’s Department of Personnel. In the years that followed, Searles served as deputy secretary of administration, director of Burlington International Airport and twice as the state’s secretary of transportation.
“He wore a lot of hats and he wore them very well,” said former Vermont Attorney General Bill Sorrell, who brought Searles on as his deputy while serving as secretary of administration under Dean.
According to those who worked with Searles, he had a remarkable talent for leading people, regardless of what job he was doing.
“He had a kind of knack for managing people, being tough on those he needed to be tough on, but supporting those who needed it, too,” Dean said.
The success of Searles’ first four-year stint as the state’s transportation secretary caught the eye of the state’s next Democratic governor, Peter Shumlin, who asked him to return to the post.
“When I was elected in 2010, I called him and he said, without missing a beat, ‘I’d be very interested,’” Shumlin said.
Soon after his return to the transportation agency, the state’s infrastructure was battered by Tropical Storm Irene in 2011. In the aftermath of the devastation, Searles led the effort to reopen over 500 miles of damaged roadways and bridges, reconnecting communities isolated by floodwaters.
“His steady hand and clarity were critical to Vermont’s ability to recover quickly,” said Sue Minter, who worked alongside Searles at the time as deputy transportation secretary.
When he retired from the agency in 2014, at age 67, Searles reflected on the response to the disaster.
“I think that what happened in the four months after Irene was incredible,” Searles told the Burlington Free Press at the time.
Brian Richard Searles was born March 12, 1947, in Essex Junction, one of six children of Frances and Vincent Searles. He attended Essex High School and became a police dispatcher for his local police department, beginning his long relationship with law enforcement, according to those who knew him well.
But it was at the South Burlington Police Department that Searles rose through the ranks from officer to captain, before becoming executive director of the Vermont Criminal Justice Training Council.
“He was never a ‘I’m a cop, you’re not’ guy. He was more of a peace officer,” said Sorrell, who knew Searles through his work as a state’s attorney in Chittenden County. (Sorrell now chairs the renamed Vermont Criminal Justice Council.)
Returning to the South Burlington Police Department as chief, Searles evidenced the particularly effective brand of leadership that would come to define his career, pursuing international training accreditations for the agency and playing an integral role in the establishment of the Chittenden Unit for Special Investigations, according to Sorrell.
Gary Margolis, who Searles hired as a police officer in 1991, said that Searles’ defining trait was his moral strength.
“He was a visionary leader, a voice of reason and calm… He leaves a lasting legacy in Vermont law enforcement,” Margolis said.
And Searles’ talent for managing people and institutions soon took him beyond law enforcement. As director of Burlington International Airport from 2005 to 2010, Searles was instrumental in accessing federal funding to expand the terminal, according to current airport director Nic Longo.
“This airport would not look the same without Brian’s insight,” said Longo.
Yet even as his responsibilities grew with his steps into state government in the Dean and Shumlin administrations, Searles remained unflappable in improving his home state. Two weeks before dying, ill in a hospital in Florida receiving aggressive treatments, Searles told Sorrell to count on him to join the Criminal Justice Council’s virtual meetings if they needed him.
“He still thought of his responsibility,” said Sorrell.
Shumlin echoed the sentiment: “There were all kinds of things he could have done with his life, but he felt passionate about making Vermont a better place. And he did that. A true public servant.”
Read the story on VTDigger here: Brian Searles, 2-time Vermont transportation secretary, dies at 77.