CRESTVIEW — Former state Sen. Durell Peaden's influence will continue to affect pharmacology students at the downtown building that now bears his name, speakers said Monday afternoon.
Florida A&M University's College of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences building is now named the Senator Durell Peaden Jr. Florida A&M University Education Center.
Pharmacy students, FAMU administrators, local and state politicians, and Peaden’s former nurse remembered him as a devoted country doctor and a dynamic member of the Legislature whose influence never waned, even after he left office.
Margareth Larose-Pierre, pharmacy program associate dean, referring to the hyphen between Peaden’s birth and death dates, said, “The dash is the most important period of a person’s lifetime.”
Like other speakers, she lauded Peaden’s devotion to his hometown.
“You can take a country boy out of Crestview but you can never take the Crestview out of the country boy,” she said. “His job here is not done, but only the future will tell all of the people he touched in his life.”
“The real honor for Durell Peaden is not his name on the building,” State Sen. Don Gaetz said. “The real honor is the people standing in this room with the white coats on,” he added, referring to pharmacy students studying at the Crestview school.
“His heart was for this community and his dream was right here,” Sen. Greg Evers said.
“There was God in him,” community activist and Peaden’s former nurse, Mae Retha Coleman, said. “I told him, ‘When you move on up, don’t forget Crestview.’
"And he never did.”
This article originally appeared on Crestview News Bulletin: FAMU renames downtown Crestview building after senator, doctor