Eric Jon Swiech

Eric Jon Swiech came streaking into Olean, NY, the summer of 1971. Eric joined his older brother Marc when their parents Susan and Edward Swiech brought him home from the hospital on August 23, usurping Marc's place as the only child. It was the dawn of the second son: an intense, bright, and fierce force who cast a long shadow across the paths of many with his untimely death at his Northfield, VT, home on March 22, 2026.

Eric packed a lot into his 54 years, beginning with his first job on the painting crew for Salamanca High School in Salamanca, NY, nestled in the foothills of the Allegany River on the Seneca Nation of Indians Territory. He painted classrooms and created murals in the gym and cafeteria. He started wrestling, always scoring above his weight and making varsity in the 7th grade at only 91 pounds. He played state-level football - once on the field at the Buffalo Bills stadium - and was voted prom king in his senior year before graduating in 1989.

Having painted his bedroom with an excellent reproduction of Pink Floyd's "The Wall" album cover, Eric headed to Franklin & Marshall University in Lancaster, PA, to major in art on a wrestling scholarship. He continued painting and often traded some of his works for music CDs, particularly for his beloved Led Zeppelin. To everyone's surprise, Eric pivoted away from wrestling and art in his sophomore year and switched toward a degree in geology.

The geologist formerly known as an artist and wrestler went on to grad school, earning a master's degree in hydrogeology from Bowling Green State University in Ohio in 1996. Eric worked in Burlington, NJ, for a couple of years, then moved to Burlington, VT, to work for environmental consulting firm Heindel and Noyes. He eventually landed at Marin Environmental in Colchester, where the handsome hydrogeologist met a beautiful, dark-haired environmental chemist named Trish Coppolino in 1999.

The young couple lived in Springfield, VT for a while, then he started his own business - Applied GeoSolutions - they moved to Northfield in 2004, and married that fall. They found a charming wood clapboard home on Stony Brook Road and filled it with art and music, ski equipment and mountain biking gear, a sport they both enjoyed often on the trails around Northfield and beyond. Four years later they welcomed Mariela Arlice Swiech. Josephine Carmela Swiech came along the next year, completing the Swiecholino clan. Eric continued to build his business, now Vermont HydroGeoSolutions, and became an adjunct professor at Norwich University in 2015 teaching soil science until 2020.

Eric shined brightest as a girl dad. He shared his love of music with them, teaching them to play and jamming with them on keyboard, guitar, mandolin, bass and drums. He built a treehouse and a soccer field and taught them to wrestle. As his daughters grew up and blossomed into beautiful, smart young women, he loved to laugh at their jokes, applauded their academic and athletic achievements, and had a blast vacationing, dining and going to concerts with them and Trish. Team Swiecholino was a ray of sunshine in the world.

But even the brightest of suns can be eclipsed, and for Eric, it was mental illness that dimmed his light. He struggled with bipolar disorder that, in his words, set his brain on fire, flinging him from mania to depression and back again. He set his engineering mind to the task of conquering the demon, just as he overcame cancer before that. He struggled through a long, dark journey with dogged resilience and intellect as he attempted to overcome what is essentially a cancer of the mind.

Through it all, Eric remained loyal to his many friends and deeply loved his family. Everyone in his orbit speaks of the lessons they've learned through Eric's mental health journey. Their fervent wish is for people to learn more about mental illness and the challenges related to its treatment. Eric wasn't his illness any more than he was his cancer, and they urge people to have compassion for those among us suffering from mental illness and for their families.

Eric will be remembered for his laugh. As the guy who skied in jeans, and raised two kids who could destroy him on the slopes. Who loved Led Zeppelin and craft beer. Who could build anything and never stopped learning. Who maintained his calm when life went sideways, with a wrestler's patience and determination, until he couldn't. His light may have been eclipsed, but it will never set in our hearts.

Eric leaves behind his former wife Trish, daughters Mariela and Josephine, mother Susan, Grandma Arlene, and four siblings: brother Marc, and sisters Kristen, Kerri, and Katrina and many aunts, uncles, nieces and cousins. He leaves us with his favorite good bye "Love ya!", one of his favorite lyrics, and a call to all to shine bright:

"And as we wind on down the road

Our shadows taller than our soul

There walks a lady we all know

Who shines white light and wants to show

How everything still turns to gold

And if you listen very hard

The tune will come to you at last

When all are one, and one is all

To be a rock and not to roll."

Eric's ashes will be interred at Sunset Hill Cemetery in Ellicottville, NY next to his late father Edward Swiech. A Celebration of Eric's life will be held on Saturday, April 25, 2 p.m., at McKain's Barn on 98 McKain Road in Northfield.

Memorials or donations may be made to the Brattleboro Retreat, or to the Vermont Mountain Bike Association.