Richard K. Swicker

Obituary for: Richard Kerwin Swicker Oct. 5, 1930 – Jan. 28, 2010 Richard Kerwin Swicker, of Westfield, NJ, died Thursday, Jan. 28th at Kindred Hospital, Rahway after a long illness. He was born in West Chester, PA in 1930, the son of Lester and Eileen Swicker, and grew up in Ridgewood and Bernardsville, NJ. Richard graduated from Bernards High, Bernardsville, NJ in '48 and from Dartmouth College Class of '52.. He served in the Army from 1952 to 1954. He started his long career in broadcast television, beginning with NBC as a Unit Manager in the News and Entertainment division. Later he worked as a free-lance Unit Manager for all the major networks as well as for PBS. His assignments took him all over the world, the most special of which was the year he spent with one of the units filming an ABC documentary called AFRICA. It was televised in 1966 as a four-hour broadcast without interruption, a "first" at that time. He was a witness to history in the coverage of the March on Selma, as well as the funeral of President John. F. Kennedy and the Gemini space missions for NASA. During his NBC years, he was proud to have been involved in the Kraft Theatre production of Walter Lord's A NIGHT TO REMEMBER, about the sinking of The Titanic. NBC had constructed a model of the main saloon and staircase in the Brooklyn studios and the drama was broadcast live, there being no videotaping in those days. In his last years before retirement, after returning to NBC, he worked on The Cosby Show, where the kitchen set featured a mortar and pestle on the kitchen counter which had been hand-turned by him. After retirement, he went to England to train in the art of woodturning, and later opened a workshop in Westfield specializing in that art. Richard is survived by his wife of 55 years, Laura Annesley Chase Swicker, and four children: Capt. Charles "Chip" Swicker, USN and his wife Gayle of Vienna, VA; Bruce R. Swicker of New York City; Peter C. Swicker and his wife Violy, of El Paso, TX; and daughter Laura A. Barber of Westfield. Surviving also are two grandchildren, Sydney Chase Barber of Westfield, and Isaac Thomas Swicker of El Paso, TX. Services will be held at 10 AM, Saturday, February 6th at St. Paul's Episcopal Church in Westfield where he and his wife have been members for over 50 years. Interment will be in the church Garth after which all are invited to a reception in the Parish Hall. Private arrangemenst by the Gray Funeral Home, Westfield. The family asks that in lieu of flowers, contributions be made in his memory to St. Paul's Church or to the Salvation Army, (Haiti Relief)