Daniel Wilbert Swearingen

Daniel Wilbert Swearingen was born at Fort Sam Houston, San Antonio, Texas, on March 11, 1940. His parents were Violet Alma Elvida Nygren of Lindstrom, Minnesota and Colonel Samuel McGraw Swearingen of Fayetteville, Arkansas. Growing up in a military family during World War II and into the 1950’s, he lived in a variety of places in Europe and the United States. During his youth, he developed his lifelong interests in music, playing trombone and singing. He also embraced all sorts of outdoor activities throughout his life--hiking, camping, canoeing, sailing and biking. Dan was a dedicated Boy Scout and earned Eagle Scout status in high school.

Dan matriculated at Georgia Tech in 1959 as a co-op student in Electrical Engineering. After graduating in 1962, he obtained a Masters Degree in Electrical Engineering from Stanford University. In 1964, Dan married Martha Murray McKinnon of Laurinburg, NC and in 1965 began his Army military service. After the Army, he and Martha moved to Raleigh, NC, where he worked for AT&T, and his daughters, Ann and Kirsten, were born.

In 1970, Dan and the family moved to Arlington, VA, and he took a job as a satellite communications systems engineer, at COMSAT (Communications Satellite) Corporation,. He served in a variety of technical and management positions during his 30 years with COMSAT, including Engineering Vice President for COMSAT Mobile Communications. In the 1970’s he led the Systems Engineering group that defined the first civilian MARISAT communications system architecture. (MARISAT is shorthand for the first maritime telecommunication satellites. Later this system was known as INMARSAT-A). In 1980-81 he served a year in London at the newly created International Maritime Satellite Organization (INMARSAT) preparing for the beginning of INMARSAT operations in early 1982. After his return to COMSAT, he continued to support the evolutionary planning for the INMARSAT System through his contributions to the INMARSAT Advisory Committee on Technical and Operational Matters (ACTOM).

After retiring from corporate work in 2001, Dan worked as a technical consultant and an adjunct teacher at GWU for several years. He also volunteered in a variety of roles: delivering Meals on Wheels, staffing his church’s homeless shelter, and serving as his church’s Junior Warden (tending to the building and grounds). And he continued to travel, visiting his daughters on the West Coast, family members in Arkansas, Minnesota, and Oregon, and friends in the US and overseas.

Dan was an active church member, singing in the choir and teaching Sunday School, first at Trinity Presbyterian in Arlington from 1970 to 1998, then at Church of the Resurrection, in Alexandria. He was a talented musician, playing trombone with the National Concert Band, McLean Orchestra, Trinity Brass Ensemble, and offering his talents to local groups such as The Hexagon Players and the Falls Church Band. Dan loved sailing and canoeing, and often recruited friends to join him on the Chesapeake Bay and the Potomac River. Dan was also a passionate cyclist; he was one of the earliest DC bike commuters in the early 1970’s and continued to ride twenty miles a day into the final years of his life.

Dan’s wife of 52 years, Martha, passed away in October 2016, shortly after he received his diagnosis of amyotrophic laterals sclerosis (ALS) a progressive neurodegenerative disease that affects nerve cells in the brain and the spinal cord. He spent his final months in the care of hospice, and with support from family and lifelong friends.

Dan is survived by his younger brother, Walter Swearingen, his two daughters, Ann Swearingen and Kirsten Medhurst, and his grandchildren, Eleanor and Barrett Medhurst.

The family requests that in lieu of flowers, please send donations to the Church of the Resurrection food pantry fund, which provides much-needed outreach to hungry neighbors.

To donate, you can send a check to Church of the Resurrection 2280 N Beauregard St, Alexandria, VA 22311. On the memo line, please indicate that the donation is for the food pantry, in honor of Dan Swearingen. Alternatively, you can donate online via Razoo at: https://www.razoo.com/us/story/ChurchOf-The-Resurrection-29