JOHN T. SWING

SWING--John Temple, former Executive Vice President and Acting President of the Council on Foreign Relations and President Emeritus of the Foreign Policy Association, died peacefully on October 4 surrounded by his family. John was born in 1929 to Raymond Gram Swing, an influential print and broadcast journalist, and Betty Gram Swing, a noted suffragist. He graduated cum laude from Harvard College in 1950 and from Yale Law School in 1953. After practicing law in Salisbury, Connecticut, and serving on the town's Board of Selectmen, John joined the Council on Foreign Relations in 1963 and helped to modernize that organization. He was a close colleague of Elliot Richardson in the negotiation of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, and he remained a prominent advocate for the treaty, founding the Rule of Law Committee for the Oceans, a primary source of information for treaty supporters. He also was active with the Non-Profit Coordinating Committee of New York, the Northcote Parkinson Fund, the Century Association, and the Board of Trustees of the Putney School in Putney, Vermont. John is survived by his wife, Devereux L.P. Swing; a son, the artist Johnny Swing, his wife, Pamela, and their children, Alva and Eli, of Brookline, Vermont; a daughter, Jenny Swing of Rockland, Maine, her former husband, Kirby Wilton, and their children, Katelin and Kelty; and a stepdaughter, Susan Kumar, her husband Parameswaran, and their son, Nikita. John was predeceased by a brother, Peter Gram Swing, and a sister, Sally Swing Shelley. His first marriage, to Janet Adams Swing, ended in divorce. John loved music and sang and played various instruments. An avid sailor, he also enjoyed cooking and travel. Donations in his memory may be made to the Rule of Law Committee for the Oceans (202-470-2543) and the Foreign Policy Association. A memorial service is planned for Friday, November 8.