John Swainson

At the age of 68, Swainson died of a heart attack in Manchester, Michigan, and he is interred there at Oak Grove Cemetery. His wife, Alice, died on September 5, 2004, in Manchester at 77.

The Michigan Historical Commission established the Governor John B. Swainson Award in 1996 to honor him for his love of history and as one of the few public officials to have served in the legislative, executive, and judicial branches of state government. The commission presents the award to state, county, or municipal employees who have contributed to the preservation of Michigan history even if such activities are not part of their primary job responsibility. Swainson’s last public office was president of the Michigan Historical Commission as an appointee of Governor James Blanchard.

His life’s journey was described as being an inspirational story of personal redemption: “By 1985, his reputation was restored when he was appointed president of the Michigan Historical Commission. (Michigan Supreme Court. Michigan Reports: Cases Decided by the Supreme Court of Michigan. Rochester, N.Y.: Lawyers Co-operative Publishing Co., 1949 – 1998, Vol. 419.)”

Swainson’s Lieutenant Governor was T. John Lesinski. His opponent in the Democratic primary, Hare, continued to serve as Michigan Secretary of State until 1971.

He served as Michigan Circuit Court judge of the 3rd Circuit from 1965 to 1971 and as a justice of the Michigan Supreme Court from 1971 to 1975. In 1975, he was accused of accepting a $20,000 bribe from a felon, who was seeking review by the Supreme Court. He was found not guilty but was convicted of perjury over his testimony to the grand jury. As a result, he resigned from the Supreme Court, was sentenced to 60 days in a minimum-security facility, and lost his license to practice law for three years.

His father, John A. C. Swainson, of Port Huron, was a Democratic presidential elector for Michigan in 1964 and an alternate Michigan delegate to the 1972 Democratic National Convention.

On June 23, 1963, Swainson accompanied the Reverend Martin Luther King Jr., Detroit mayor Jerome Cavanagh, and approximately 125,000 people on a “Walk for Freedom” march down Detroit’s Woodward Avenue. The same year, he was also a member of Democratic National Committee from Michigan.

In 1962, Swainson was defeated by Republican George W. Romney, the chairman of the American Motors Corporation, who had never before held elected office. The win was attributed in part to Romney’s appeal to independent voters, as well as to the increasing influence of suburban Detroit voters, who, by 1962, were more likely to vote Republican than the heavily Democratic city. (It also marks the only time in US history that a governor born in Canada was replaced by one born in Mexico.)

On November 8, 1960, Swainson narrowly (1.28% margin) defeated Republican Paul D. Bagwell, a Michigan State University professor, in the 1960 Michigan gubernatorial election. As a result, the 35-year-old Swainson became the youngest governor of Michigan in the 20th century. He was also the state’s second foreign-born governor.

When the Bluewater International Bridge (which spans the St. Clair River between Port Huron, Michigan, and Sarnia, Ontario) was paid off, Swainson used an executive order to cancel the $0.25 toll that had been collected. “Stoically”, he effectively cancelled his own father’s “$6,115-a-year toll-collector’s job,” which John A. C. Swainson held since 1957.

Swainson was elected to the Michigan State Senate from the 18th District in 1954 and was reelected in 1956. In 1958, when Philip Hart was elected to the United States Senate, Swainson succeeded Hart as Lieutenant Governor of Michigan under Governor G. Mennen Williams. When the long-serving and popular Williams announced he would not seek re-election in 1960, Swainson decided to enter the race. He did so despite being pressured by influential Democratic Party members, including Williams, not to run in deference to three-term Michigan Secretary of State, James M. Hare. Swainson won the primary against the party favorite, largely due to strong support from labor unions.

Swainson received a B.A. from Olivet College, where he also met and married his wife, Alice Nielson. She accompanied him to the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where he received a J.D. degree in 1951. While there, he was elected student president of the law school.

Swainson served in the United States Army during World War II with C Company, 378th Infantry Regiment of the 95th Infantry Division and lost both legs by amputation following a landmine explosion November 15, 1944, near Metz, Alsace-Lorraine. He was awarded France’s Croix de Guerre, the Presidential Unit Citation with two battle stars, and the Purple Heart, all before his twentieth birthday. After months of convalescence and rehabilitation at the Percy Jones Army Hospital in Battle Creek, Swainson learned to walk upright and unassisted.

John Burley Swainson (July 31, 1925 – May 13, 1994) was a Canadian-American politician and jurist who served as the 42nd governor of Michigan from 1961 to 1963.