Mr. Alan George Swan

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Mr. Alan George Swan, 75, a resident of The Orchard in Clarkesville, Ga., for the past four years, died on Dec. 1, 2018, at Habersham Medical Center, following a heroic battle with cancer and pneumonia. Mr. Swan lived in the community of Hopeland, east of Modest Town, from 1999 until 2014.

Mr. Swan was born in Buffalo, N.Y. on May 8, 1943. He attended Colorado School of Mines, in Golden, and graduated from Westminster College in New Wilmington, Pa., with a degree in political science. He later attended Georgetown University majoring in Latin American area studies.

Mr. Swan was a retired foreign service officer with USAID, Department of State. His first tour overseas was to Saigon during the war. He was accompanied by his wife and two daughters to assignments in Quito, Ecuador, Cairo, Egypt, and Monrovia, Liberia. During his 30-year career, he worked with the Office of Foreign Disaster Assistance where he was widely respected for his thoughtful, fact-based opinions and compassionate work for the victims of disasters. In 1996, he was awarded the Distinguished Career Service Award by the USAID Administrator.

Prior to coming to live in Clarkesville, Mr. Swan resided in Reston, Va., and on the Eastern Shore of Virginia. He was a friend of Bill W. for more than 30 years.

Mr. Swan was an adventurer who explored many parts of the world including Mongolia, the Congo, Kenya, Cambodia, the Shetland Islands, the Outer Hebrides, and the Falkland Islands. A fan of cruising, he and his wife sailed across the Atlantic and the Mediterranean, down the Amazon to Manaus. They sailed twice around Cape Horn and to within seven hundred miles of the North Pole to Svalbard, Norway.

Mr. Swan was the son of Arlene Dobmeier and Bernard Swan of East Aurora, N.Y.

Mr. Swan is survived by his wife of more than 51 years, June; two daughters, Lizzy Johnson and her husband, Dirk, of Demorest, Ga., and Nicole Gore and her husband, Glenn, of Reston, Va.; and one grandson, Jack Johnson.

Donations in memory of Alan Swan may be made to the Habersham Humane Society, P.O. Box 1442, Clarkesville, GA 30523 or online at http://habershamhumane.org

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