John Swanberg

John Andrew Swanberg passed away on Saturday, May 25, 2013 at the Paula J. Baber Hospice Home in Fort Dodge, Iowa, at the age of 76 years.  

Funeral services will be held on Wednesday, May 29, 2013 at Evangelical Lutheran Church in Eagle Grove, Iowa, at 11 a.m. with Pastor Jason Cooper officiating.    

John, the son of John Howard and Florence Violet (Vlieland) Swanberg, was born on Aug. 27, 1936 in Minneapolis, Minn.  He was raised and educated in the area of his birth.  John served three and a half years in the United States Army Security Agency as a Chinese Linguist and received a Commendation from President Eisenhower.  

On Sept. 2, 1960 John was united in marriage to Penelope Couillard in Minneapolis.  John began his career in the F. W. Woolworth Companies management program in 1961 and obtained his first store in Shorewood, Wis.  The family moved to numerous communities during his career, settling in Clear Lake to manage the Ben Franklin store in 1969.  In 1986, they purchased the Ben Franklin store in Eagle Grove.  They sold it and retired in 1998. 

John was a member of the Evangelical Lutheran Church, the Bower Lodge #464 and had been a member of the El Kahir Shrine.

John enjoyed playing golf, horseback riding and gardening – he would grow 15,000 gladiolas every year to sell.  He was also a Green Bay Packer fan, bee keeper and insatiable reader.  He was always reading about W.W. II and the European Theater. 

John is survived by his devoted and loving wife of 52 years, Penelope “Penny” Swanberg of Eagle Grove; daughters, Kristi Dziatkowski and husband, Mitch, of Omaha, Neb., and Karina Stewart and husband, Paul, of Omaha, Neb.; grandson, Christopher Dziatkowski; and sister-in-law, Pamela Fortin of Halifax, Nova Scotia.

He was preceded in death by his parents and sister, Joan Johnson.

Memorials may be left to the Shriners Hospital for Crippled Children or Shriners Burn Institute.