William R. Swanson

William Reynold Swanson was born on May 10, 1952 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin to Reynold and Betty Swanson. Bill was the middle child born in between his older sister, Vicki, and his younger brother, Bobby. He spent his early childhood years living in Glen Lake, Minnesota near his Grandpa and Grandma Swanson’s farm where he and his siblings loved playing in the barn, running around with the sheep, picking raspberries and apples, and watching their beekeeper Grandpa extract honey from the honeycombs. When Dad was just 5 years old, his family moved down to sunny Florida where he would spend the rest of his youth. His mother was a homemaker and his dad an optometrist.
He attended the Orlando Church School (later named Orlando Junior Academy). Although, he was born the smallest baby of the three children, by 10 years old he had shot up to an astonishing 6 feet tall! His mom and dad took him to the Mayo Clinic to have their unusually tall son tested to make sure nothing was wrong with him. He checked out just fine and would ultimately grow to an impressive 6’6”. Around 12 years old, dad’s appendix burst and he had to
be rushed to the hospital in the middle of the night. He nearly died and this was the first of many times in his life that God would spare him from near death. Dad attended Forest Lake Academy, graduating from the class of 1970. In the early 70’s, his dad, Dr. Swanson, along with other physicians organized a medical missionary project called “Glasses to Haiti” where they gave free eye exams and donated glasses to the local people. Dad spent a summer assisting with the mission project where he also had a Haitian drivers license so he could run errands for his dad. Around this time, Dad had been in Berrien Springs, Michigan attending the wedding of his cousin, Jeff Yost. At that wedding, Dad met my mom, Lynda Popp. The two hit it off and after a 4 year courtship, they were married on July 27, 1975 at the Pioneer Memorial Church in Berrien Springs, Michigan where the newlyweds built their home together. In 1981, Mom and Dad became first-time parents when their daughter, Erica, was born. Shortly after my birth, Dad went back to college with his brother-in-law, Doug Popp, where they got their Bachelor’s Degrees in Marketing from Andrews University. They graduated together in 1985. While studying, he worked at Apple Valley Market in Berrien Springs later becoming grocery manager. Dad enjoyed his time working at Apple Valley and frequently told
us humorous stories of after hours adventures in the warehouse or on the loading dock. One time, Dad chuckled as he told me he got the bright idea to make use of a leftover helium tank they had used for an event. He and a buddy tied several giant trash bags together with string, filled them with the helium and released them into the atmosphere. In the 80’s, Dad acquired a large collection of old 16mm films. One Saturday night, inside the grocery aisles of Apple
Valley, Dad setup his projector and screen and showed old 16mm films to a few co-workers and their families along with mom and me. Dad loved to show his 16mm films any chance he got including several of my childhood birthday parties and gatherings with friends later in his life. He enjoyed traveling and took several big trips in the 80’s including a family trip with his parents, sister, Vicki, and us to British Columbia to see the World’s Fair in Vancouver in 1986. He also took a trip with his dad and several family friends to Eastern Europe after he graduated from college. In 1987, Mom and Dad welcomed their second child-my brother, Andrew. With a son and a daughter, they felt their family was now complete. Dad was always very loving and affectionate, constantly telling us how much he loved us and how much we meant to him. Through ups and downs, there has never been one moment when I doubted my dad’s love for me. He loved taking us to the zoo, the Andrews University Dairy Farm to see the cows on Sabbath afternoons, to Disney and family camp at Camp Au Sable and later Camp Kulaqua. In the late 80’s, Dad began working with his best friend, Jamie Erhard, doing damp proofing on basements in Michiana. As Jamie puts it, Dad was a “brother of another mother.” Dad loved working with Jamie in those days and the two remained the best of friends. In 1989, my Grandpa Swanson purchased a large building of shops in downtown Orlando across from Lake Ivanhoe. Having previous experience working construction, Dad assisted his father in the major renovation of the building. A few years later, Swanson’s Ivanhoe Row was opened. Dad had a passion and love for antiques and beautiful old things since he was a boy. When he was little, he would ride his bike down Park Avenue in Winter Park and dreamed of owning the antiques in the windows. Shortly thereafter, Dad fulfilled that lifelong dream and opened Swanson’s Antiques, his own antique shop inside Swanson’s Ivanhoe Row. He filled his shop with quality, high-end antiques. In 1992, Dad moved our family from Berrien Springs, Michigan down to Apopka, FL to be near his exciting new business. On a rainy September 3, 1992, Dad was alone in his shop when two men walked in and asked to see some jewelry. Suddenly, one of the men drew a .38 caliber revolver on Dad, told him to get on his knees and put his hands on his head. The men started grabbing jewelry from the display cases and then marched Dad to the back of his shop demanding cash. Dad complied and finally the men ordered him to his knees again and told him to put his hands on his head and close his eyes. Dad realized if the men were going to kill him, it would be now. With the gun pointed at his head, Dad was thinking of his family and praying to God asking him to spare his life. The second man was shouting at the gunman, “kill him! kill him!” Dad thought, it’s now or never. In an instant, Dad’s hands flew off his head and onto the gun desperately trying to turn it away from his body. Dad, being a large man himself, began to wrestle with the gunman (who was a big man recently released from prison) to get control of the gun.
Ultimately, Dad’s hands slipped off the gun. The gunman pushed Dad down onto the floor, shot him and the two men fled out the front door of his shop. Dad didn’t realize he had been shot until he looked down and saw he was covered in blood. Because of the position of his fall, the bullet hit him in his lower left abdomen, exited his lower right abdomen and re-entered the inside of his upper right thigh hitting his femoral artery. One bullet, one shot, but bleeding from 3 holes. An ambulance took Dad to the trauma center at Orlando Regional Medical Center where he fought for his life. He survived that horrific ordeal but in the 26 years that followed he was hospitalized many times with life-threatening illnesses and underwent several major surgeries-all related to the shooting. After the shooting, Dad was interviewed many times by multiple local news stations. I remember he told one reporter, “I believe God has given me a second lease on life…and I won’t forget it.”He didn’t forget it either. God graciously gave us those 26 additional years with Dad after the shooting and in the years after that terrible event, something beautiful happened.
Mom and Dad started attending a Sabbath School class at Forest Lake Church taught by Michael Gordon and Marti Jones. He started studying about Daniel and Revelation with Frank and Donna Sheffield and was listening to sermons by Doug Batchelor and Dwight Nelson. The more he listened and studied, the closer he drew to Jesus and the focus of his life started to take a sharper turn. He had a heavy burden in his heart to spread the gospel of Jesus and tell people that Jesus is coming soon! More than a decade ago, Dad closed down his shop and began steadily selling antiques on ebay. With every order that was sold, he began including a Bible Study CD. That was his little ministry and he so badly wanted to let his light shine. On Sabbath afternoons, Dad would often read Matthew 24 to us and urged us all to have a relationship with Jesus and be ready for His soon return. Nearly 13 years ago to the day, Dad walked me down the aisle of this very church to marry my husband, Tony. Around that time, Dad became a grandfather for the first time when Andrew and his wife, Cristina, welcomed their son, Christopher. Andrew and Cristina went on to add two more boys to their home, Daniel and Nathaniel. Recently, Tony and I welcomed
Ethan and then Emma into our family. Dad adored his 5 grandchildren and especially looked forward to Sabbath afternoons when he loved spending time with his wife, children and grandchildren. Nothing in life was more valuable to him than his relationship with Jesus and his family that he loved so much. Like the jewels he once sold in his antique shop, my Dad was a multi-faceted man. His childhood friend once told me that Dad never really grew up. He had an edgy, colorful and quick-witted sense of humor that was all his own. No one can make me laugh like my dad! He loved to tell jokes and tease us. I can remember one time he filled an empty half gallon of ice cream with water. So, later when we would open the freezer hoping to find a yummy treat, we opened a carton filled with only ice instead! He also had the most tender heart of anyone I’ve ever known. He was incredibly sensitive and easily moved to tears. I can remember many times watching movies with Dad and turning around to look over my shoulder and catch him with tears streaming down his face. He had an appreciation for the sweetness in life and was deeply
moved by the kindness in humanity. I often heard people describe my dad as a “big teddy bear of a guy” or “a gentle giant.” My dad loved history, art, antiques and movies-old and new. In his younger years, one of his favorite pastimes was hunting for sharks teeth and arrowheads. He was a master storyteller. His sharp memory and keen attention to detail always amazed me. He could hold up any antique and tell us exactly where, when and who he bought it from.
Ultimately, it would turn into a story. He loved to reminisce and told us stories of his life from childhood to his adult years. He talked about the boyhood mischief he got into, adventures with his high school buddies, the fun he had with all of his co-workers through the years and stories of he and mom during the early years of their marriage. He highly valued honesty. He would often tell Andrew and me that it’s much better to get in trouble and face the
consequences than to tell a lie. Dad said other antique dealers would tell him he wasn’t more successful because he was too honest. He was incredibly generous, often giving to various ministries he supported and earlier he would help homeless people downtown near his antique shop. He was very thoughtful. If one of us told Dad we liked a certain food or drink, the next week we may be surprised that Dad would have a case of that particular item shipped to our house. Dad was always concerned about the safety of his family. For the past few years, he bought us children AAA memberships for Christmas. If one of us was taking a road trip, Dad would call us repeatedly to be sure we were staying awake while we drove and even offered to book us hotels ahead on the road so we could stop to rest and be safe. He supported our interests. When he found out Andrew and Cristina wanted to take their boys camping, he
bought them a tent, bear spray, sleeping bags and campfire popcorn. He began my love of collecting classic movie memorabilia and helped me build my collection. He often bought Ethan books about Daniel Tiger’s Neighborhood because he knew how much he loved it. His family was his world and he constantly let us know in word and in action.
Dad was a lover of beautiful things and treasured his antiques. Although, he spent his career dealing in material things that he loved deeply, his priorities were in the right place. He would often look around the house and tell us, “as much as I love these antiques, they’re all going to burn someday. We can’t take it with us,” and “this world is not our home. We’re just passing through.” In recent years, Dad faced many health challenges and his mobility became
more limited. In early November, Dad was admitted to Florida Hospital and spent a total of 3 weeks there, 2 of them in the ICU. In the early morning hours of November 23, 2018 after a courageous battle fighting multiple organ failure, Dad peacefully went to sleep. Mom, Andrew and I were surrounding him. What a gift to be with him then. I told mom how beautiful that Dad was with me when I took my first breath and I was with him when he took his last. He was one of a kind. I miss him terribly. One thing I know for sure is that if my Dad were here this morning, he would want each of you to know that Jesus loves you and He’s coming soon! The most important message he
would want to leave with you is to get to know Jesus and love Him with all your heart. He would want us to help him spread the Good News of Jesus love and tell people that He’s coming soon. His greatest desire would be for us to be ready for that day when Jesus will split the sky open and come down from the clouds of glory to take His children home with Him so we can live together for all eternity. “For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a
shout, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And thus we shall always be with the Lord. Therefore, comfort one another with these words.” I Thessalonians 4:16-18. May we all be ready for His soon return so we can spend eternity with Dad.