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 exits off now. There were houses there, and that’s where I was born and raised until we moved,” recalled Perry, who is the oldest of five siblings.
The “castle-like building” was known as Quinlan Castle. It had been built in the 1920s and once served as an apartment building. The structure, which was on a corner of the Southern Research campus, had been deemed unsafe, too costly to repair, and unsuitable for modern lab space.
In 2021, the organization received a permit to demolish the building and erect in its place a new biotech building, where more than 100 scientists will eventually conduct research.
Perry attended A.H. Parker High School. He had a daughter when he was still in high school and earned GED diploma two years after dropping out of Parker. Perry now has three children—a daughter, Tyesa Slaughter, 50, and two sons, Samuel Perry Jr., 38, and Alexander Perry, 32—and he said his job at Southern Research helped him create a life for his family.
For years, Perry’s family has encouraged him to retire: “They’ve been telling me to retire, especially my oldest son. He’s been telling me I need to come home.”
Perry’s official last day is January 28, but he feels it will be difficult to say goodbye.
“I said I was going to do it on [January 28], but I might hang around a little bit longer if they let me. If I stay on after [that day], I’ll probably leave in June,” said Perry, who added that he wasn’t joking.
Besides working at a clothing store in high school, Southern Research has been Perry’s only job. A normal day for Perry starts at 5 a.m. and ends at 2 p.m. As the incinerator operator, Perry’s tasks include collecting items from four different docks and bringing them to the incinerator. Besides those tasks, Perry handles several housekeeping jobs around the facilities.
“We get there at about 5 in the morning. I usually come in, turn the incinerator on, and let it warm up. Then I get in the truck and pick up [items that need to be incinerated]. Whatever else they want me to do, I do,” he added.
In his free time, Perry used to play basketball to keep busy, but now, “All I do is go home and go to sleep,” he said jokingly.
Perry considers himself “a chill and laid-back guy,” who likes to keep to himself “and stay out of the mess.”
One memory he shared with The Birmingham Times is his love for traveling every year with his family for family reunion trips.
“One time we went to Las Vegas, and there were so many people. I would never go to Las Vegas again,” he said.
His favorite family reunion trip was a cruise to the Bahamas: “It was OK, but, you know, the thing I liked most was being on the ship. It was nice,” he recalled.
“I try to go to different places. We used to have family reunions and travel a lot every year, [but the COVID-19 pandemic] did a whole lot and stopped a lot of that stuff. We started back two years ago,” said Perry. “If suggested, I would go, but there are not a lot of places that I need to go. I’d rather be at home.”
