James "Jim" Swan, 84, of La Plata, Maryland, died August 21, 2025.  Jim was the second of ten children born to Florence and Ned Swan.

He was raised in Michigan and attended a first year of university studies there before being accepted to the US Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland. It was while attending the Naval Academy that Jim met his future wife, Kirstin.  Jim and Kirstin were married 5 years later and spent their first year of marriage in Japan. They were blessed with six children and at least a dozen cats over the years (not to mention some chickens, ducks, geese, peacocks, a guinea hen, dogs and goats!).

Jim served in the US Navy for 20 years.  He completed many sea voyages, spent 5 years at the US Naval Post Graduate School in its Mathematics Program, and finally moved to the DC area for his final duty station at the Pentagon. This last position included time analyzing military threats to the United States and serving as a primary consultant to the US Military Joint Chiefs of Staff.  During his military career, he also served a two-year assignment on loan to the United Nations Peace Keeping Force in the Middle East – one year based in Jerusalem and another in Amman, Jordan. 

After retiring from the Navy, Jim led a consulting firm providing services for many years to military and civilian organizations. Later he enjoyed a number of years teaching a variety of topics in various Charles County Public High Schools and the Huntington Learning Center.

He had a life of active service in communities both near and far.  Locally, that included the Boy Scouts, Orienteering, St. Joseph’s Parish Faith Formation, and the Knights of Columbus. He also worked with Quaker work camps, including many week-long projects in Southern Maryland, a summer at a Romanian orphanage, rebuilding burned churches in various parts of the US, and hurricane disaster relief. Jim’s final volunteer work included fulfilling the dream of Fr. Robert Pittman to drill wells in Mozambique, Africa – work which included seven overseas trips of 3 months each.

In later years, between all these activities, he hiked the vast majority of the Appalachian Trail from North Carolina to Maine. He was an avid reader and loved learning.  He studied (and spoke) many languages, ancient history, mathematics and other sciences.

Jim is survived by his wife, Kirstin, five children, nine grandchildren, one great-grandchild and an untold number of past students whose lives he touched.

He will be greatly missed.

The family will receive friends at St. Joseph Catholic Church, Pomfret, Maryland on Thursday, August 28, 2025 at 10 AM until time of funeral mass at 11 AM.  Interment church cemetery.