John Swanson was superintendent of Oak Park and River Forest High School District 200 from 1974 until 1987, and worked to maintain the traditions of the school while taking an empathetic approach to student discipline, according to colleagues.
Swanson, 96, died of kidney disease Feb. 21 at the Johnson Health Care Center at the Covenant Living at Windsor Park retirement community in Carol Stream, said his daughter, Kathryn Soneson.
John Charles Swanson was born and raised in Rockford, and graduated from East High School in Rockford. He received a bachelor’s degree from Wheaton College in 1949 and subsequently a master’s and a Ph.D. in education from Northwestern University.
From 1952 until 1957, Swanson taught and was a dean at Wheaton Academy in West Chicago, where he also coached basketball. He then returned to his alma mater, East High School in Rockford, where he was a counselor and an assistant principal, before becoming principal of the newly opened Guilford High School in Rockford.
In 1969, became an assistant superintendent for curriculum in the Deerfield Highland Park High School District, a post he held until taking over as superintendent of the Oak Park and River Forest High School District.
As Swanson saw the school district’s student body becoming more diverse, he hired the district’s first-ever African American administrator, Larry Walker, in 1982. Walker’s title was associate superintendent, but he essentially functioned as Oak Park and River Forest High School’s principal.
“Jack was the most caring administrator that I’ve ever known or even the most caring human being I’ve ever known. He was just good at everything, and he was so sensitive and down-to-earth with everything,” said Walker, who now is based near Las Vegas. “He pushed me to be the best I could be.”
Swanson created a variety of initiatives as superintendent, including, at Walker’s urging, a student assembly to recognize Martin Luther King. Swanson also created human relations awards for students based on their kindness toward others, complete with a recognition breakfast. Swanson also brought all staff — not just teachers but custodians and cafeteria workers — to a conference on the day before school started, to place everyone on the same page, Walker said.
Don Vogel, the district’s former media coordinator, recalled Swanson’s organizational skills as well as his penchant for a personal touch, such as sending staff handwritten notes for accomplishments.
David Hanson, a District 200 board member during the latter part of Swanson’s tenure, remembered Swanson as an empathetic leader.
“In student punishment issues, students would come and appear before the board, and we, including Jack, had the feeling in so many cases that we’re sorry we have to punish the students — we wish we could punish the parents,” Hanson said. “It’s a perspective that comes from viewing people as human beings and analyzing them and developing your feelings that way.”
In 1982, District 200 learned that its chief custodian, 23-year district employee Reinhold Kulle, had been a Nazi who worked at the Gross-Rosen concentration camp during World War II. Kulle had covered up that fact on his visa application to come to the U.S.,
The situation drew headlines, and the District 200 board in January 1984 dismissed Kulle, who had been an exemplary employee, under a deal in which he agreed to take early retirement from the district that summer. Three years later, he was deported to Germany.
“Jack would always recognize the best features in any other human being, and when we dealt with the Reinhold Kulle situation, there was only one way to go — to dismiss him,” Hanson said. “But Jack had sympathies with Reinhold, as did many of the faculty members, because he was looking at it from the human side, not from the board side, in that analysis.”
After retiring as superintendent in 1987, Swanson was an interim school superintendent for districts in River Forest and Rockford, and he also volunteered for Circle Urban Ministries, Lawndale Community Development Corp. and Lawndale Christian Health Center on the West Side. He also worked with the group World Relief to help refugees acclimate to the U.S., and he and his first wife spent a year on a Christian mission in Manila.
Swanson’s first wife, Ellie, died in 2004 after 54 years of marriage. His second wife, retired Wheaton College professor Zondra Lindblade, died in 2022. In addition to his daughter, Swanson is survived by a son, Robert; a brother, Armour; seven grandchildren; and five great-grandchildren.
A visitation will take place at 10 a.m. Saturday,at Immanuel Presbyterian Church, 29W260 Batavia Road in Warrenville, with a memorial service to follow at 11 a.m.
Goldsborough is a freelance reporter.
