Randolphe Pierson "Perry" Swenson, 84, of Ocean Reef, Key Largo, Fla., formerly of Montclair, died in his home on Saturday, Sept. 13. He was born in New York, N.Y., to Swen Randolphe Swenson and Jean Merritt Swenson.
He spent his youth in Montclair, where he attended Montclair Academy. He graduated from high school at the Lawrenceville School in 1941. His education at Princeton University was interrupted in 1944, when he was commissioned as a second lieutenant in the U.S. Army Air Corps and served as a navigator on aerial missions in the South Pacific Theater during World War II.
After the war, Mr. Swenson graduated in 1947 from Princeton University with a degree in English, and completed graduate courses in geology at Princeton. He returned to Montclair while working as a mineral investment expert at the Empire Bank of N.Y., and at the Swenson Land and Cattle Corp. of Stamford, Texas, where he served on the Board of Directors.
In the mid-1960s, he was elected president of the New York Petroleum Analyst’s Group, which led to becoming a partner at Clark-Dodge, which merged with Wood-Walker which subsequently merged with Legg Mason. He remained active at Legg Mason, even after moving from Montclair to Key Largo in the 1990s.
Mr. Swenson was active in Montclair as a Boy Scout leader and avid sportsman at the Montclair Golf Club, where he won many club golf tournaments. He also enjoyed tennis, and was a fan of the Boston Red Sox and NY Giants. He was active at Central Presbyterian Church in Montclair, the Bay Head Community Chapel and the Ocean Reef Chapel, where he was a regular usher and trustee.
Mr. Swenson was predeceased in 2002 by his wife of 55 years, Martha Jean Kennedy Swenson. He is survived by his three sons, Dr. Randolphe P. Swenson Jr., Eric Kennedy Swenson, and Peter Kaywin Swenson; a brother, Bruce B. Swenson; brother and sister-in-law, Richard LaBonte and Katherine Kennedy LaBonte; sister-in-law, Nancy Tiernan Swenson; and five grandchildren, David, Schuyler, Vadik, Perry and Ivan.
Memorial donations in Randolphe P. Swenson’s name may be made to VITAS Hospice Charitable Fund, 16800 NW 2nd Ave., Suite 400, North Miami Beach, FL 33169, or Adoption Services International Agency, 8555 16th St., Suite 600, Silver Spring, MD 20910.
