HOBOKEN, N.J. — Former NCUA Board Member Robert Swan has died ofcomplications from a stroke.

“The really cool thing about Bob is that he was a trueRenaissance Man,” said California Credit Union Senior VicePresident Chris Kerecman who was Swan's chief assistant at NCUA.“He had an MBA, was an accountant, was very into politics and yethe was also an avid musician, extraordinary athlete and golfer andwas very dedicated to serving credit unions. At his funeral we werejoking that if you wanted to find him at NCUA start with themailroom because he liked getting out and talking to people.”

Swan graduated with an accounting degree and MBA from theUniversity of Utah. The military veteran worked as an auditor forthe US Army in California for two years. Always politically active,he served on Tooele City Council and was elected Mayor in 1969.Governor Scott Matheson appointed Swan as the deputy director offinance in 1977.

From 1983 to 1990 Swan served as CEO of Tooele Federal CreditUnion and when former President George H. W. Bush appointed him tothe NCUA Board he became the first CEO to serve on the board.

Serving from 1990-1996, Swan, who was Tooele Federal CreditUnion CEO became known for listening to the “credit union side” onindustry regulations.

During his time at NCUA, Swan had an impact on the merging ofthe industry insurance fund, regulatory issues surrounding field ofmembership including fending off bank attacks, and helping CDCUsgain easier access to the Community Development Revolving LoanFund.

Swan is also known for suing President Bill Clinton in anattempt to maintain his seat.

On that Kerecman said, for Swan, it was more of an technicalquestion on succession and the court decided not tot take up thematter so he lost by default and Yolanda Wheat took his place.

“He very much viewed his role as the credit union voice. He feltthat one of the shortcomings with the agency and people who workedthere that they had no credit union experience and he felt it wascritical that someone inside the agency could look at an issue froman operations perspective,” said Kerecman. “So he always viewedhimself as a watchdog for the credit union's perspective because itis one thing to promulgate a regulation another for credit unionsto be able to carry it out in their operations.”

Kerecman says one of the hardest decisions Swan made was thevote over building an NCUA headquarters.

“It was a two person board of D'Amours and Swan for almost ayear and Swan refused to allow a new building to move forwardbecause he felt strongly that another existing facility could berenovated for headquarters,” said Kerecman. “So he stalledconstruction until a third board member was brought in and Shirley[Bown?(C)] cast the vote to let it go through.”

A long-time credit union advocate, upon leaving NCUA, Swanstarted his own credit union lobbying and consulting firm SwanResources and Consulting Services and lobbied on several occasionsfor the Utah League of Credit Unions in the on-going battle in thatstate between credit unions and banks. He continued as a consultantlobbying for Utah credit unions and Tooele County up until hisdeath.

“He had his consulting firm to the end and had a meeting withseveral credit union people the day before he passed away,” saidKerecman. “Bob was loved by many and he enjoyed his life. When hiswife mentioned since they married so late in life that they wouldnever have a chance to celebrate their 50th anniversary, Bobstarted celebrating their anniversary every Friday the 13th so theywould have their own 50th.”

He is survived by his wife Jan, children and grandchildren.

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