John W. Swanson, 86, of Green Valley, Arizona, died on August 4, from complications of Alzheimer's.

John worked for over 40 years at the Institute of Paper Chemistry in Appleton, Wisconsin (now the Institute of Paper Science and Technology at Georgia Tech). He joined the staff in 1941 as a research chemist. He became a member of the faculty in 1950, teaching graduate courses on surface and colloid science and the colloid chemistry of papermaking materials. He helped win contract research for the Institute's member paper companies and the allied chemical industry and was awarded 11 patents. He became the first Director of the Natural Materials and Systems Division. He retired in 1982.

John will be remembered as an excellent scientist, a mentor to his students, and an esteemed professor.

John was a world expert on the surfaces of paper, consulting with Institute member paper companies, lecturing and speaking across the United States and Mexico, at Cambridge University and Oxford University in England, the Pulp and Paper Research Institute of Canada, the University of Sao Paulo in Brazil, the Finnish Pulp and Paper Research Institute in Helsinki, the Swedish Royal Institute of Technology at Stockholm, and the University of Neuchatel in Switzerland.

He was awarded an honorary Doctor of Science degree from Morningside College in 1972, and an honorary Master of Science degree from Lawrence University in 1982. Throughout his career, John received numerous awards and recognitions from the Technical Association of the Pulp and Paper Industry, the American Chemical Society (of which he was a member for 65 years), and Wayne State University. He published many articles and edited several volumes of paper research. His former students have published his lecture notes in his honor.

John was born in Sioux City, Iowa, on October 12, 1917. He graduated from Morningside College, in Sioux City, in 1940, and married his high school sweetheart, Joyce Weed, in 1941. He was a graduate student at Iowa State University in Ames when he was recruited by the Institute. John and Joyce lived in Appleton from 1941 until retiring to Green Valley, Arizona, in 1984. John continued to consult with clients for several years after his retirement. He was preceded in death by Joyce, who died in 1992. He is survived by three children, Jack Swanson, of Frisco, Texas, Jim Swanson, of Amado, Arizona, and Barbara Templeton, of Sioux City, Iowa, by 12 grandchildren and 8 great-grandchildren.

A memorial service is scheduled at 10:00 AM on Saturday, August 21, at Trinity Lutheran Church, 1122 Jackson Street, Sioux City, Iowa, with internment at Graceland Cemetery in that city. The family welcomes donations in John's name to the Alzheimer's Association (www.alz.org) or for diabetes research.

John’s son Jack can be contacted at jswanson@communispond.com or teapotcomm@aol.com .