Swanson was born in 1942. He received a B.A. at
The College of New Jersey in 1964 and a M.A. in 1966. In 1968 he received an
Ed.D. from the
University of Illinois. Swanson has worked at the
University of Minnesota from 1979 until 2005, and since 2005 as
professor emeritus of Human Resource Development and Adult Education at the University of Minnesota in
St. Paul. He is also professor emeritus at the
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Since 2006 Swanson is a Distinguished Research Professor of Human Resource Development and the Sam Lindsey Chair at the College of Business and Technology at the University of Texas at Tyler. Swanson has been organizationally active for a long time. In 1968 he initiated and directed an effort by the Department of Industrial Education in recruiting disadvantaged undergraduates from Ohio's center cities. Among three dozen other activities, he has been president of the Academy of Human Resource Development (AHRD), and at the end of 2007 he chaired
UTT's HRD Faculty Search Committee. == Publications ==