Former Springfield mayor and city councilman, Paul Redfearn has died. Redfearn served as a Zone 4 Springfield City Council member from 1973 to 1977. He was sworn in as mayor in 1979 and served until 1981.
Redfearn was a longtime professor at (then) Southwest Missouri State University, now Missouri State University. He taught biology from 1957 to 1988.
According to his obituary, Redfearn specialized in the study of mosses and liverworts, and he collected in not only the Midwest and Texas but also in Alaska, Canada, Japan, the Canary Islands and Hainan and China. He was selected for a one-month visitation to the Soviet Union by the National Academy of Sciences in 1971. He authored or co-authored over 96 publications, including two books.
Memorial services will start at 6:30 Thursday night at Christ United Methodist Church in Independence with visitation at 5:30.
Redfearn was 92.
