Sam Swan

1949 - 2025

Sam Swan
01/21/1949 - 06/19/2025
As an earthquake engineer, Sam Swan spent his life studying one of the world's great enigmas: how the ground shifts beneath us.
But as a father and husband, he delighted in the small and familial. Nothing pleased Mr. Swan more than placing a wry caption in a photo album, or balancing a grandchild on his knee.
Samuel Wyatt Swan died peacefully at home on June 19, 2025, following a long bout with myelofibrosis. He was 76.
Born in Boise, Idaho, Sam grew up in a neighborhood of low-slung bungalows with porch swings. His father, John Swan, built dams during the New Deal era, and his mother, Mamie Swan, worked as a telephone operator. Sam's older brother, John Swan Jr., would eventually become a teacher and move to California's Central Valley.
A shy, studious kid, Sam read voraciously and cultivated a writer's love of language. He also had an aptitude for math and went on to study engineering in college, attaining a Bachelor's degree from the University of Arizona and a Master's from Stanford University in 1973. Ultimately, Sam gravitated to seismic engineering and settled in the Bay Area – "earthquake country" in industry lingo.
Sam met his wife, Sandy Ried, during a Sierra Club hike through Point Reyes in 1975. They married two years later, exchanging thrift store rings on Santa Monica Beach. Two friends attended the modest ceremony, where a Methodist minister read vows as surf sloshed in the background. Sandy wore a wreath of flowers, Sam a denim button-down with a frog embroidered on the hem line. His co-workers at an engineering startup held the reception.
The couple had two daughters and moved to Albany, California, granting Sam a life sentence as a suburban dad. He inhabited the role with gusto, playing catch on weekends or squiring his girls on long public transit rides to Golden Gate Park. All the while, he made advances in the field of seismic engineering, using data from past earthquakes to fortify structures for the future.
Brandishing a business card with the slogan "have laptop, will travel" – a reference to an American Western TV show – Sam visited earthquake sites in India, Mexico, Japan, Chile, France, Alaska and various parts of California. He assessed damage at power plants and wrote copious reports, recommending retrofits that likely saved power consumers millions of dollars.
Yet when it came to home repairs, Sam seemed to forget all his knowledge of structural integrity. He fixed everything with duct tape.
In his spare time, Sam loved to jog, hike, backpack in the Sierra Nevada and take five mile walks to a movie theater. He read books every day, took pleasure in words and occasionally slipped purple prose into his highly technical engineering documents. Friends remember his sharp wit, generous spirit, and ability to connect easily with people. When, for example, a door-to-door salesman complimented the alliteration of the name "Sam Swan," Mr. Swan grinned broadly.
"He was a complex man who led a simple life," Sandy said of her late husband, noting that he attained all of his life goals, but for one: to be a nonagenarian.
Sam Swan is survived by his wife, Sandy, daughters Rachel and Emma, brother John, nieces Jaynie and Nicole, five beautiful grandchildren and Sandy's clan of at least 51 in-laws. A celebration of life will be held later this summer. Donations can be made in his name to the St. Anthony Foundation.