Samuel L. Perry Sr. Reflects on a 50-Year Career at Southern Research in Birmingham

By Sym Posey | The Birmingham Times When Samuel L. Perry Sr. took a housekeeping job at Southern Research in Birmingham as a 21-year-old, he never imagined he’d spend his entire career there. That was 50 years ago. “I had no idea that I would stay around here this long,” he said during an Employee Milestone Celebration at the City Club in downtown Birmingham. “Years just passed and passed, … and I liked doing the job. People weren’t constantly on you all the time, and you had good people that you worked with.” Perry, 71, recalled learning about the job in 1974 in the newspaper. He was hired as part of the Southern Research housekeeping staff, he took a position in the maintenance department, got a commercial driver’s license, and started driving a truck for the organization in the 1980s. Born and raised in Birmingham, Perry lived on the Southside until the age of 8, where, ironically, he lived near the Southern Research campus. “I stayed maybe two blocks over, [and] there was a castle-like building over here on the Southside. I always admired that castle-like building. [My family] lived at 25th Street and 8th Avenue, right where the freeway...