John Edward Swan

John Edward Swan, of Asheville, North Carolina, passed away February 1, 2026 at his home. John was born January 18, 1937, in New Orleans, Louisiana. John’s parents were Herbert Cecil Swan and Florence Ruth Fowler Swan, of New Orleans. John is pre-deceased by his first wife, Bonnie Sue Guillory Swan, his brother Robert Swan, his sister-in-law Nettie Dunn Swan, and his brother-in-law Michael Guillory. As a child John attended Audubon School and Country Day School in New Orleans. He attended college at Louisiana State University, where he met his first wife Bonnie Sue. After a stint in Washington, D.C., where he worked for the U.S. Census Bureau, John and Bonnie Sue moved to Bloomington, Indiana, where he received a PhD in Business from Indiana University. Their son John Edward Swan II was born in Bloomington. John’s first teaching position was at the University of Texas at Austin, where their daughter Suzanne Swan was born. The family then moved to Fayetteville, Arkansas, where John taught at the University of Arkansas. John’s final academic position was at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. After losing Bonnie Sue to cancer in 1999, John and Susan Wrifford White married in 2004. The couple moved to Asheville, North Carolina, in 2010 and resided at Deerfield Episcopal Retirement Community. John’s lifelong passions were the natural world, where he loved to hike, kayak, and canoe; bird watching (he had an encyclopedic knowledge of birds, and loved to take other people bird watching); and devotion to his family. John is survived by his wife Susan; daughter Suzanne, her husband Bret Kloos, and grandchildren Sarah (Jeremy Bird) and Bee Swan-Kloos; son Edward, his wife Courtney, and grandchildren Georgiana and Alex Swan; brother Edward Fowler Swan; sisters-in-law Gail Swan and Ellen Guillory; brother-in-law Joel Guillory (Janet Burch); nephews and nieces, Allen Swan, Duff Swan and his wife Karem Swan, Rachel Swan and her husband Dan Pruksarnukul; Elizabeth Guillory, and Gregory Guillory (Carrie); and his great-nephews and nieces, Andre Swan, Fallin Swan, Ian Swan, Westley Pruksarnukul, Max Pruksarnukul, Storm Guillory, Paxton Guillory, and Rachael Guillory.

John’s celebration of life service will be on Saturday, April 4, at 11 am in the Grace Chapel at Deerfield Episcopal Retirement Community. Memorial donations in remembrance of John may be sent to The Nature Conservancy, an organization he supported throughout his life.

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