Benjamin Hillyard Sweney ’43

A retired insurance executive, Bud died Sept. 30, 2009, in Overland Park, Kan., after a long illness under hospice care. He was 86.

Born in Chester, Pa., he graduated from high school in Swarthmore, Pa., in the National Honor Society. At Princeton he was on the freshman swimming team and 150-pound football team and joined Quadrangle Club. He majored in foreign languages (German).

Bud joined the Marine Corps in 1942, became a lieutenant, and served in the Pacific. After the war he studied law for two years at the University of Pennsylvania, and then joined Keystone Insurance Co. From 1958 to 1965 he worked for Continental Casualty Co. as property and casualty branch manager.  

Bud moved his family to Leawood, Kan., in 1959 and later joined R.B. Jones Insurance Agency, where he became vice president. He retired in 1984. He and his wife, the former Anne Needles (“Nancy”) Darlington, moved to Punta Gorda, Fla., in 1988, but in 2003 they moved back to Overland Park.  

Bud was preceded in death by his son, Jared. He is survived by Nancy, whom he married in 1943; daughter Anne D. Bayless; son James C. Sweney; four grandchildren; and three great-grandchildren.