Bruce Swinehart's Influence Carries On
Bruce Swinehart served as president of the Sacramento Audubon Society from October 1952 to August 1953. After his presidency, he continued to volunteer with Sacramento Audubon for decades. On May 13, 2021, Bruce Swinehart passed away at the age 94.
Jeri Langham, one of the many introduced to birding by Bruce, shares this remembrance:
Bruce Swinehart passed away at 94 on May 13th, 2021. I attended the Lind Brothers Mortuary Service for him on May 21. The only two people I knew there were long-time Sacramento Audubon members Tim Fitzer and Truman Holtzclaw and we spoke at the service.
I want to present examples of how Bruce’s love for birds will be carried on forever.
Truman mentioned how Bruce’s class changed his life. He was into diesel engines but Bruce’s ability to teach and transfer his love of biology led to Truman joining the Sacramento Audubon Society. Truman went on to transfer this new love of biology to his students at Peter Lassen Junior High and then for 20 years at Sacramento High School.
I was hired by California State University in fall of 1970 to teach the introductory Plant Biology class all majors had to take. Believing field trips were important to learning, I led an optional overnight field trip to the ocean and another to the Sierra. When students asked me to identify birds, I had no clue. And I hate to admit this, but I used to think birding was only for “little old ladies in tennis shoes.”
In fall of 1975, one of my teaching assistants talked me into taking a night class in bird identification from Bruce Swinehart at American River College. Bruce completely changed the rest of my life as his love for birds and his teaching abilities opened my eyes to a new world. Soon I was chasing rare birds all over California and increasing my life list by traveling to other states. More than 7,000 students took my classes at CSUS. I was able to transfer my love of birding to some of them who now pass that love on to others wherever they live. Some who live in or near Sacramento continue to join me on Christmas Bird Counts and the four Breeding Bird Surveys I do each year and some join me for local birding activities. Their influence is inestimable.
Like Bruce, Tim and Truman and I served as Presidents of Sacramento Audubon Society and led field trips for decades. In 1986, I co-led my first tour for Victor Emanuel Nature tours and 35 years later I am still taking birders all over the world.
My son Gary was 7 years old when I started birding, so he grew up birding and around birders. He became a birder and still holds the record for being the youngest person to co-lead a VENT tour (about 90 tours with me). Gary received a Ph.D. at Cornell University, studying birds. He then worked for Audubon for 12 years, first in California, and then in D.C. as Vice President and Chief Scientist. Without Bruce’s class changing my life this never would have happened.
Truman and I are but two examples of how Bruce Swinehart was able to drastically change lives and how those changes have and will continue to move on from person to person. What an incredible legacy he left!!!
An outstanding article about his life can be read at https://www.legacy.com/obituaries/sacbee/obituary.aspx?n=durward-bruce-swinehart&pid=198692766&fhid=6705
-Jeri Langham, May 2021