Remembering AU history Professor "Cowboy Mike" Searles

“Cowboy Mike” was well known for his research about African Americans cowboys in the West. (photo courtesy of Augusta University)

By Clara Sorrow | Staff writer

Augusta University Professor emeritus Michael Searles, known as “Cowboy Mike,” passed away June 23, due to natural causes.

He was a beloved professor of history, with his focus being in that of African American cowboys and how Western growth is centered around the work of black Americans. He had done an incredible amount of research in this, granting him the nickname, “Cowboy.”

Before teaching at a collegiate level, he attended Southern Illinois Edwardsville, where he received his B.A., and Howard University, where he was awarded his M.A. He also attended the Union Institute in Cincinnati for doctorate classes.

“Cowboy was a true scholar,” said Hubert van Tuyll to The Augusta Press, a good friend of Searles’s and fellow professor emeritus. “He interacted with, and was highly respected by, nationally known scholars of Western history. He drove some half million miles in pursuit of this knowledge, even interviewing the few Black cowboys still living.”

Professor emerita Debra van Tuyll, wife of Hubert van Tuyll, expanded on his teaching process. Students had told her that he had used a “cowboy style” of teaching – storytelling. Mrs. van Tuyll mentioned this as “the best way I know of to get students interested in history.”

She first met him when they were both beginning their teaching practices at Augusta University, before Allgood Hall had been built. With her office right next to his, she describes being able to hear his singing and “infectious laugh” throughout the hallway.

Professor Pamela Hayward agreed that this attitude never changed with him.

“He had an outgoing and warm personality and an incredible laugh,” Hayward said. “When we first moved into Allgood Hall in the early 2000s, my office was on the second floor and I would often hear his laugh carrying throughout the building and it always made me smile.”

Hayward further recalled her experience with Searles. She remembers him being an active member of the Faculty Club.

“I went on one of the Faculty Club trips to the Dominican Republic, and Cowboy Mike was part of the group,” she explained. “We would find him in the lobby of the hotel chatting with new friends he was making along the way. He would always pass out the wooden nickels he had made with his likeness to everyone he met.”

Dr. Ruth McClelland-Nugent, current department chair and associate professor of history, describes her experience of having Searles as a faculty mentor in 2005. Specifically, she illuminates his efforts to make sure everyone had an equal chance of receiving a college education. He would go from school to school, teaching students, always adorned in full cowboy garb.

“If I had to pick one word to describe him, it would be "generous,” she said. “He was generous with his time, generous in his judgments of people, generous with food (his pinto bean cake and his chili were the stuff of legends!) and he was extremely generous with his laughter. He will be greatly missed by very many people.”

She also describes his participation in the Black History Month committee, wherein she served alongside him to create events throughout February.

“The year he was able to bring the Buffalo Soldiers to campus was pretty cool! We used to have an "Africa Day" and for that day only he would put aside his cowboy garb for  magnificent West African traditional garb,” she explains about the annual celebrations.

While he retired in 2012, he continued his work with African American and Western history throughout his life. He was featured on Augusta VA’s Juneteenth Community Panel Discussion just this year and was a continuous contributor to Burke County’s “The True Citizen.”

“He was a man of faith, and he lived it out every day in the way he treated others,” said Mrs. van Tuyll, regarding Searles’s life and work with the Presbyterian Church in the United States of America (PCUSA).

They had worked together on presbytery-level churches and had also worked in church conflict management in Augusta.

“Jesus said that the greatest commandment of all was that we love our neighbors as ourselves, and Mike did. He would reach out a hand of fellowship to anyone, and if they took it, they were better for knowing him,” she said.

Before coming to Augusta University, Searles had taught at Boggs Academy, now known as Boggs Rural Life Center. Even earlier, he had lived in Illinois, working tirelessly with the Civil Rights Movement in the area.

“You can see from his social activism that he believed in the importance of asserting a positive influence, and he certainly did. You couldn't be around Mike and not leave happier and better for the interchange,” Mrs. van Tuyll said regarding his civil rights activism.

As Mr. van Tuyll said to The Augusta Press, “Never wait to see the ones you care about.”

The Bell Ringer sincerely offers condolences and hopes for peace for the friends and family of Michael Searles.

Contact Clara Sorrow at csorrow@augusta.edu.