BAR HARBOR – Theodore “Ted” P. Swetnam, loving husband of Marilyn (Maloney) Paulsen Swetnam, went to be with the Lord, Feb. 10, 2004. He was born in St. John, New Brunswick, Canada, June 5, 1923, the youngest son of Rev. John A. and Amy (Prowse) Swetnam. His family moved to the U.S. when he was a young child and he later became a U.S. citizen. His childhood was spent in Pittsfield, N.H. and Quaker Hill, Conn. where his father had pastorates. The Swetnam family always spent their summers at the New England Bible Conference at Rumney, N.H. When Ted was high school age, he received a scholarship to attend Bob Jones High School in Cleveland, Tenn. The school was associated with Bob Jones University. After graduation, he attended Gordon College in Wrentham, Mass. graduating in 1947. He then attended Western Seminary in Portland, Ore. To pay for education, he worked for a lumber company in the summer and in the school kitchen. His first pastorate was at the Baptist Church, Thomaston. He also pastored in Vermont and New Hampshire before moving to Florida in the early 60’s. He continued in the ministry until the late 70’s when he moved to California where he was property manager of a senior citizen complex for HUD. He returned to Florida in 1989 and to Maine in 1990 to marry Marilyn Paulsen on Dec. 30 of that year. The Paulsens and Swetnams had been friends for years. Ted loved music and was an excellent pianist. His favorite was classical music, especially that composed by Franz Liszt. He tuned pianos, loved repairing and rebuilding old pianos and he knew everything about the workings of a piano. He would spend hours in the basement working on an old instrument and, with an inventive and mechanical mind, loved to find a way to fix things that others might discard. Ted had a great interest in space and enjoyed reading about the planets and space programs. Surviving in addition to his wife of Bar Harbor, are two children, Warren Swetnam and his wife, Kathy, of Port St. Lucie, Fla. and Hope Ann Lockwood and her husband, Dennis, of Palm Bay, Fla.; grandchildren, Shelley Swetnam and Tristan Lockwood of Florida and Christopher Lockwood, USAF, Afghanistan; one sister, Marjorie Joyce and her husband, Harold, of Riverside, N.J.; two brothers, Rev. Hubert Swetnam and his wife, Virginia, of Kingston, Mass. and Rev. Gerald Swetnam and his wife, Barbara, of Bangor; nephews, John Swetnam of Tennessee and David Swetnam of Waldoboro; nieces, Joni Nicholas and Joyce Foulk of Florida and Mary Louise Cornwell of Seattle, Wash.; step children, Glen Paulsen and his wife, Marie, of Massachusetts, Jean Young and her husband, Gordon, Harold Paulsen and his wife, Susan all of Bar Harbor; four step-grandchildren, one great-granddaughter. A memorial service will be held 11 a.m. Monday, Feb. 16, 2004 at the First Baptist Church, Bar Harbor, with the Rev. Scott Records, pastor, officiating. Memorial contributions may be made to Island Connections, 15 Eagle Lake Rd., Bar Harbor 04609 or to Hancock County Home Care, PO Box 156, Blue Hill 04614. Cremation arrangements by Cremation Basics, Inc., Bangor.
THEODORE ‘TED’ SWETNAM
