Daniel C. Searle, 81; chief executive of family’s drug, research company

Daniel C. Searle, 81, a fourth-generation leader of his family’s drug and research company known for the medications Dramamine and Metamucil, died Oct. 30 of complications from emphysema while traveling in Scotland, his son Gideon said.

Searle was named president in 1966 and chief executive in 1970, then turned over the chief executive’s job to Donald Rumsfeld in 1977, eight years before G.D. Searle & Co. was sold to Monsanto for $2.7 billion.

G.D. Searle & Co. was founded in Omaha by Gideon Daniel Searle in 1888 and moved to Chicago in 1910. Searle joined the company after graduating from Harvard Business School in 1952.

To better navigate the federal government’s regulatory maze, Searle recruited Rumsfeld, an old friend whose successful run for Congress 15 years earlier had been financed by Searle and other Chicago businessmen. Rumsfeld became Searle’s chief executive and president, and Searle took the chairman’s post.

A native of Evanston, Ill., Searle served in the Naval Reserve and graduated from Yale University.