Allan Victor Swanson's Obituary
Allan Victor Swanson, son of Harold and Florence Swanson, was born and raised in Canton, OH, and graduated from Lehman High School in 1951. He arrived as a freshman at Baldwin-Wallace College that fall and spent the next 70 years in Berea as husband to Jo, father, grandfather, educator, counselor and dedicated friend. His wife, Georgia Koontz Swanson passed in 2022. He is survived by daughters Devora and Caryn (Dwayne), son Douglas (Jan), grandsons Mason (Miho) and Dashell, granddaughter Riley Jo, and great grandchildren Kai and Claire.
Al joined Baldwin-Wallace in 1968 as an Assistant Dean of Continuing Education and over the next 32 years counseled evening and weekend college students, created programs for prior learning assessment and established the Alpha Sigma Lambda honorary. In 2000, he was recognized by the Ohio Order of Lifelong Learning and in 2004, he received a BW Outstanding Educator Award.
Al also established the first Elderhostle program at BW, facilitated programs at over 40 Ohio colleges and served as state director for 20 years. He was an active member of Alpha Sigma Phi Fraternity as an undergraduate and served as faculty advisor for its reactivation in 2005.
His devotion to building programs for education, traditional and non-traditional student life, and his lifelong love of learning will be remembered by many. Services will be at 2 pm on October 22 at Berea United Methodist Church.
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