Thaxter Swan

SANDY SPRING, Md. — Thaxter Swan, 86, an intelligence officer with the Central Intelligence Agency for 32 years, died Thursday, Oct. 22, 2009, at Friends Nursing Home in Sandy Spring, after a six-year battle with a rare cancer.

Mr. Swan was born in 1922 in Boston, and grew up in nearby Hingham, Mass. He served three years with the U.S. Army in Europe during World War II, first with the 1262nd Combat Engineers and then in military government in the U.S. sector of Germany. He graduated with an AB from Harvard University in 1947.

Mr. Swan was a descendent of the Sherburnes and Penhallows of Portsmouth, and also was a distant cousin of Celia Thaxter, after whom he was named.

His wife of 58 years, Ruth, died in 2006. Survivors include his children, Lucy Swan of Olney, David Swan of Purcellville, Va., Thomas Swan of Pittsburgh, Pa., and Robert Swan of Portsmouth, N.H.; and 12 devoted grandchildren.

WE REMEMBER: He joined the CIA in 1947, just one month after it was created, and moved to the Washington area with his fiancee, Ruth Baldwin Snyder, who he married early the next year. Mr. Swan began his career in the operations side of the agency before moving to the analysis side after three years. Mr. Swan, who was fluent in German, was stationed in West Germany with his family on two separate, three-year tours of duty; in Bonn beginning in 1953, and in Munich beginning in 1961. Upon his return to the United States, Mr. Swan worked first in the Office of Current Intelligence, where his job focused on producing daily intelligence reports for executive decision-makers, and later in Foreign Liaison, working closely with allied intelligence organizations.

He and his family lived in the Springfield area of Bethesda for 37 years, where they were members of the Kenwood Country Club and the River Road Unitarian Church.

After retiring in 1979, Mr. Swan and his wife traveled extensively throughout the world, spent time at their farm in the Shenandoah Valley near Stanley, Va., and helped raise their grandchildren.

In 1994, he and his wife moved to the Leisure World retirement community in Silver Spring, where he remained active in the civic affairs of their "mutual" at Leisure World, in the C&O Canal Association, and in the Association of Foreign Intelligence Officers.

Mr. Swan spent years researching his family's history and genealogy, which he used to write, over a 15-year period, a three-volume, 600-page book highlighting some of the most interesting vignettes of his life, and those of his family and ancestors.

This year, as he was battling the effects of his chemotherapy, he published the book, titled "Just the Facts" for about 80 family members and friends.

Mr. Swan's immediate family, the Penhallows, owned the Warner House, one of the finest historic homes in Portsmouth, N.H., until they sold it in the 1930s.

Mr. Swan was a board member of the Warner House for many years and member of the Portsmouth Athenaeum. He was very involved in bringing back antiques to the house, including donating a very rare and valuable high chest that dated back to the 1730s.

Mr. Swan loved visiting Portsmouth to do family research while spending time with his youngest son, Bob, and their family, who have lived in Portsmouth since 1985.

SERVICES: A memorial service will be held at 2 p.m. Nov. 14 at Leisure World Retirement Community Clubhouse I, Maryland Room 3700 Rossmoor Blvd., Silver Spring, MD. A burial service will be held at 11 a.m. Nov. 28 in Hingham, Mass. In lieu of flowers, donations can be made in Thaxter Swan's name to the Autism Center of Pittsburgh, 135 Cumberland Road, Suite 105, Pittsburgh, PA 15237, www.autismcenterofpittsburgh, or JSSA Hospice Program (Jewish Social Service Agency), 200 Wood Hill Road, Rockville, Md. 20850, www.jssa.org.