Donna Swaim

SWAIM, Donna

1934 - 2020

Teacher, traveler, matriarch, counsellor, prison mentor, sports fan, hugger, Donna Swaim left this world a better place on November 8, 2020. She was born in 1934 on a farm near Mitchell, Nebraska, the daughter of Glenn and Retta Elliott and the youngest of five siblings. She was a high school cheerleader and 4H member.I'm Bob, Donna's husband of 67 years. We met as students of the University of Nebraska at a Kansas football game in 1951, never looked back, and were married in December 1953 just before I shipped off to Korea. While I was gone, she began her career teaching High School in Chadron, Nebraska. Our first home after Korea was in Albuquerque, N. M. where our first child, Katy, was born in 1957.Tucson was our final nesting place where our second child, Phil, arrived in 1958. There, she occupied her time with Junior League activities and raising a family. But change came with the emerging civil rights concerns, the inspiration of John Kennedy, and the expanding experience of travel from our 1961-62 sojourn in London where I worked as an architect. While assisting me in my budding architectural firm and actively supporting our children's activities, Donna worked to earn a Master's degree and then her PhD. Thus began a span of 50 years teaching English, Humanities, and Religious Studies at the University of Arizona, advising resident physicians in the UA medical program, serving as a Faculty Fellow in the athletic department for 20 years, and volunteer teaching in the state prison system where she made lasting friendships with inmates. Her exploration of art and philosophy led to her yearly student travel journeys, "Voyages of Discovery". Donna visited 50 countries from South Africa and Zimbabwe to Nepal and arctic Norway. She loved her students and all she met. Her classes were mutual learning and interaction experiences for which she received the University's first Five Star Teaching Award. After a liver transplant in 2004, she continued her career until retiring at the age of 80.I and her remaining and expanded family will always cherish her memory, a beautiful woman in many ways: Sister, Clela of Madison, Wisconsin; Son, Phil and Sabrina, of Tucson; Daughter, Katy Brown, of Tucson; Grandsons: Chris Brown and Melynda of Parker, Colorado; Sean Brown of Brookings, Oregon; Alex Brown of Flagstaff; granddaughter, Kelly Swaim of Tucson; and great-grandsons Caden, Desmond, and Titus Brown of Parker Colorado.Special gratitude to family physician, Dr. Michael Duperret and to her best friend, Honey Labradoodle Swaim.

Donations may be made to the UA Foundation/Donna Swaim Global Award for Religious Studies (kkseat@email.arizona.edu)