Henry Jay Swanger ’72

Henry died in San Diego July 2, 2004, after a heroic, three-and-a-half-year battle with cancer.

He came to Princeton from Cedar Crest High School in Lebanon, Pa. His first schooling was in a two-room schoolhouse serving several grades. He was a member of Tower Club, where his intelligence and wit were highly regarded. His '72 roommates included Ed Griffin and John Mann.

After Princeton Henry earned a Ph.D. in geophysics at Stanford, and spent his career in both the oil industry and the defense sector, most recently at Science Applications International Corp. working on nuclear monitoring and verification. There, as a colleague wrote, "his work in the detection, localization, and discrimination of seismic events for monitoring underground nuclear tests was of material significance and contributed to world security during and after the Cold War."

A dedicated sports enthusiast, particularly for baseball and thoroughbred racing, Henry's happiest days were spent at the ballpark and the Del Mar racetrack, close to Encinitas, Calif., where he lived for the past 20 years.

He is survived by his mother, Elizabeth Bennetch; two sisters, Susan White and Sandra Baymiller; and numerous nephews, nieces, and grandnephews and grandnieces. The class extends sincere condolences to all.

The Class of 1972