After a valiant two-year battle with cancer, Theodore (Ted) J. Swigon, 77, passed away on April 26 at his home in Chesterton, IN. Ted lived there with his wife Catherine Swigon (nee Bomba) for less than a year since moving from their beloved Beverly Shores where they began their life together 28 years ago on April 27.
Ted was the first born of parents, Theodore S. and Anne A., and lived in Chicago’s Back of the Yards neighborhood where he and his only sibling, Robert Swigon, attended grammar school at St. John of God Parish. He attended his first two years of high school at the Archbishop Quigley Preparatory Seminary in Chicago, and graduated from De La Salle Institute in 1960. After two-years of study and a diploma from the Chicago Academy of Fine Arts in 1958, Ted earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts from The School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 1967, went on to study two years at the Institute of Design at the Illinois Institute of Technology, and earned an MBA from Chicago’s Roosevelt University in 1980.
Ted spent sixteen years of his long career in the museum field at the Museum of Science and Industry, from 1969 through 1985, the last five as Director of Exhibits with responsibilities for a 60-member Exhibits Department. He and his team worked on a myriad of exhibits starting with conceptualization, to design, installation, maintenance and removal. Switching to the for-profit side, Ted continued working in the museum profession until his retirement in 2010, selling exhibit design and fabrication services for companies such as Maritz Dimensional Communications in Chicago, Design Craftsman in Midland, MI, Exhibitworks in Livonia, MI, and Chicago Scenic Studios in Chicago. Before retiring, Ted continued consulting for an assortment of local Indiana and Illinois museums on a range of subjects from history, to automotive, to military. Ted was an accomplished artist in his own right, with a love for water color. His paintings were exhibited along with various pieces of sculpture and drawings at an exhibition held by Valparaiso University in 2013.
His volunteer work spoke volumes about his love for Chicago’s ethnic community – particularly that of his mother’s homeland, Poland. Polish was Ted’s first language. As President and Vice-President of the Polish American Educators Association, Vice-President of the Polish-American Congress (Illinois Div.), member of the Hellenic, Italian, Polish Educators Coalition and a member of the Illinois Ethnic Coalition, Ted was an active member of the community, especially in inter-group, inter-ethnic activities including dealings with state, county and city educational heads and working associations with leaders and members of a number of Chicago’s large ethnic communities. For six years, he volunteered as President of the Polish Museum of America in Chicago, following that as Vice President of Arts and Programming for the Copernicus Foundation of Chicago.
Ted is survived by his wife Catherine, stepdaughter Abigail Ott (Chris), step granddaughter Ashley, stepgrandson Nathan; brother Robert (Joan) Swigon, uncle of Susan (Steven) Bock and Robert J. Swigon; great-uncle of Taylor, Sean, Grace, Matthew and Theresa Bock; brother-in-law of Linda Bomba and Duane (Marcia) Bomba, and uncle to Jon (Heather), Steve, and Nora Bomba, and Michael Tiquez.
Visitation will be held on Wednesday, May 1, from 3:00 to 9:00 pm at Blake-Lamb Funeral Home located at 4727 West 103rd Street, Oak Lawn, IL. A funeral mass will be held at 10:00 am at St. Patrick Parish located at 638 N Calumet Rd, Chesterton, IN, with an interment of ashes immediately following mass at the columbarium located within the St. Patrick Cemetery located on Calumet Road in between 1100 North and Porter Road, also in Chesterton.
SHARE OBITUARY
v.1.8.18