Carl Robert Swenson

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Carl Swenson
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August 10, 2012

Carl Robert Swenson

Anonymous ---- The Tribune Star Fri Aug 10, 2012, 05:00 AM EDT

Carl Robert (Bob) Swenson, 96, whose homecoming and coronation day was Tuesday, Aug. 7, 2012, at Union Hospital in Terre Haute. Bob was born April 16, 1916, in Worchester, Mass., to Carl Richard Swenson and Edith Magnuson Swenson, both of Sweden.

Bob was a noted prizefighter boxer in his younger years. He was scheduled to fight another boxer who had just finished boxing Sugar Ray Robinson.

Bob then turned his life around and accepted Christ to win the love of his future wife Charlotte Bryant Washburn. He married Charlotte on Sept. 12, 1943, in Providence, R.I. He never forgot anniversaries, birthdays, or Valentine’s Days. He was very romantic and a prolific poet. They always signed cards to each other “Always & in All Ways.”

He graduated from King’s College and was then sent to Jerry McCauley Rescue Mission in New York’s Hells Kitchen on West 42nd St. He was the superintendent of the mission while Charlotte played the piano. After that God sent him to Roseau, Minn., as the minister of the Swedish Covenant Church. From there the Lord sent him to Michigan and then on to several other churches in Indiana, where he lived for 52 years. He had preached to prisoners at Sing-Sing during his earliest years. Bob was a kind, caring, gentle soul who would give you his last dime. He had no enemies. He was a fantastic father-always caring and supportive.

Bob is survived by two daughters, Marjorie Glee (Marty) Branson and Lou Ann Higgins; two sons, Carl Richard (Dick) Swenson and David Reed Swenson; one sister, Olive Borner; 10 grandchildren; nine great-grandchildren; several nieces and nephews; and the caregivers at Meadows Manor North who cared for him the last few years of his life.

He was preceded in death by his parents; the love of his life, wife Charlotte Swenson; brother, Algot Richard Swenson; sisters, Eleanor Kling, and Gladys Swenson; two stepmothers, Christine Swenson and Edla Swenson, who was a cook and housekeeper for President Benjamin Harrison’s wife in their home after his Presidency

Services will be Tuesday, Aug. 14, 2012, 1 p.m. at Mattox-Wood Funeral Home, 4660 N. Lafayette Ave., with the Rev. Allen McQueen officiating. Burial will be in Roselawn Cemetery. Visitation will be Monday, Aug. 13, 2012, from 4 to 8 p.m.

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