Richard C. Swanson, Sr.

Richard Carl Swanson, 88, of Gretna, Nebraska, went home to his Lord on August 17, 2026, with his wife and son at his side.

He was born June 9, 1938, in Burlington, Iowa, to Carl Frederick and Agnes Louise Swanson. He was a three-sport athlete in high school — baseball, football, and basketball — and pitched until he threw out his arm his senior year. At nineteen he joined the United States Air Force, serving from 1957 to 1961.

On March 16, 1963, he married Hazel Griffith in Anchorage, Kentucky. They were partners for sixty-three years. Even when his work took him on the road, he called her every night. 

Richard spent his career in the lighting and wiring industry, working for Thomas Industries, Dual-Lite, and Sentinel Lighting, where he served for many years as National Sales Manager. He was good at it — but anyone who knew him understood that the reason he was good at it had nothing to do with selling. He simply liked people. He never met a stranger. He had a story for everybody, and he told it whether you were a customer, a dentist, or the man pumping gas. He judged people by their character and nothing else, and if you were a good person, he was going to be your friend.

He was a man of action rather than words. He didn't talk much about faith — he lived it. He didn't announce that he was going to spend time with his children — he showed up. He taught his son to play baseball on hot Texas afternoons, and coached his teams even while traveling for work. He built more than fifty intricate model airplanes for his son Ricky, and they hung from the ceiling of Ricky's room for years. He read nearly every book written about World War II and could tell you anything you wanted to know about it.

He loved golf, and took it up in earnest after retiring in Tennessee, playing nearly every day. On his 72nd birthday, he shot a 72. Over his years on the Tennessee courses he also recorded two holes-in-one — a feat most golfers never accomplish once in a lifetime.

He had a soft heart that not everyone saw. During the family's years in Texas, if a neighbor was working outside, Richard put on his gloves and joined in — building countless sections of fence, helping replace roofs, and helping build a deck, always out of friendship and never for anything in return. Decades later, after he and Hazel moved in with their son's family in Gretna, he drove his granddaughters to school every morning and waited at the bus stop every afternoon so that neither of them would have to walk home alone. When he and Hazel were first dating, he bought her a coat because he didn't want her to be cold. He loved animals — he had wanted to be a veterinarian — and every dog the family ever owned was treated as a member of it. In Tennessee, he bought fifty-pound bags of shell corn and salt blocks and fed the deer and wild turkeys every afternoon for twenty years, until they came and waited for him.

He taught his children that right is right, that you do what's right regardless of what it costs you, and that there is never a wrong time to do the right thing. He taught them to act like they'd been there before — to be humble, to let their actions speak, and never to put themselves above the team.

He was a longtime member of the Lutheran church in Tennessee and Texas, and worshipped with his family at Good Shepherd Lutheran Church in Gretna, Nebraska, after he and Hazel moved in with his son's family in August 2023.

He faced the end of his life without fear. He knew where he was going, and he was ready. He was preceded in death by his parents, Carl Frederick Swanson and Agnes Louise Swanson, by his sister, Muriel “Murph” Lindwall, who passed away in March 2026; and by his brother-in-law, Robert Lindwall.

He is survived by his wife of 63 years, Hazel Griffith Swanson, of Gretna, Nebraska; his daughter Sandra “Sandy” Lynn Swanson of Texas; his sons Richard Carl Swanson Jr. of Gretna and Robert “Robbie” Charles Swanson and his wife, Katarina Ellis Swanson, of Gretna; his sister Margaret Randolph and brother-in-law Bernard Randolph of South Carolina; his grandchildren Heather Carter Martin, Michael Carter, Tanner Robert Swanson, Alessandra Grace Swanson, and Lillie Angelica Swanson; his great-grandson Jackson Martin; and many loving nieces and nephews.

A small family service will be held.

In lieu of flowers, the family asks that memorials be directed to a local humane society or animal rescue. Richard loved animals all his life, and he would be glad to know that a few more of them were cared for in his name.