PETER SWORDS

SWORDS--Peter deLancey. Peter deLancey Swords passed away suddenly and unexpectedly on May 9, 2023 at Mount Sinai Morningside hospital in New York City due to complications following a femur fracture after a fall. Surrounding him at his death were his loving wife Brenda and daughters Deirdre and Eliza. He was 88 years old and had recently survived pancreatic cancer. A lifelong New Yorker, he graduated from Harvard University in 1957 and Columbia Law School in 1962. He served for two years as LT (jg) in the U.S. Pacific Fleet aboard the USS Boxer (CV-21), an aircraft carrier, while it was command ship for Operation Hardtack, the 1958 nuclear tests in Bikini Atoll, Marshall Islands. In 1966, while an associate at Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft, Peter's strong convictions about racial equality and social justice led him to work with the Lawyers' Committee in Mississippi where he represented Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and many others. In 1972 he became Associate Dean at Columbia Law School where, with a colleague, he developed a course on nonprofit law which he taught for four decades. As a pioneer of nonprofit law, he embraced a liberal view of "charitable purpose" to include not only relieving poverty, advancing education, and serving religion, but also serving "other purposes beneficial to the community, not falling under the preceding heads." Peter played a crucial role in defending the city's nonprofit sector when in the 1980's the Koch administration proposed rescinding the nonprofit property tax exemption. He went on to co-found the Nonprofit Coordinating Committee of New York (now Nonprofit New York), an organization devoted to improving and protecting the city's nonprofit sector. He subsequently served as their Executive Director and President until he retired in 2000. As a lifelong student of philosophy, Peter was deeply interested in ethics and morality, the philosophy of giving, and how to reconcile competing public interests in society. He was a dedicated and long-serving board member and legal advisor to many organizations including La Mama Theatre, Harlem School of the Arts, Correctional Association of New York, Early Music Foundation, Century Association Archives Foundation, Mountain Top Historical Society of Haines Falls, NY, and the organization of Amma, "the hugging saint." He was also a great lover of art, and a diverse array of favorite music was a constant backdrop to his days (jazz, classical, opera, Armenian, rock and pop). He greatly enjoyed the beauty of the natural world on his daily runs in Riverside Park or gazing out over the magnificent Hudson Valley from his desk in the Catskills. Peter's positivity impacted all who met him, from friends and colleagues to local store owners to his extended and adoring family. A unique and remarkable man, he will be remembered for his kindness, friendliness, optimism, desire to help others, curiosity, intellect, and his smile. He will be forever missed by all who knew and loved him. Toward the end of his life, while undergoing chemotherapy for cancer, his appreciation of nurses and science reached a new high. Those wishing to commemorate his memory may contribute to the research of Dr. Susan Bates at the Pancreas Center at Columbia University Irving Medical Center. Contact Rebecca Solinsky at: rebecca.solinsky@columbia. edu or (646)799-2793 for more information.