Dr. Thor David Swanson

Dr. Thor David Swanson, age 49 of Sioux City, Iowa died on Saturday, March 7, 2015 in Sioux City after a 4 ½ year battle with osteosarcoma cancer. Funeral Services will be at 5:00 p.m. Friday, March 13, 2015 at the First Presbyterian Church in Sioux City with services led by Reverend Dean Apel and Pastor Verlyn Schaap. Burial will be in the family plot in Liberty Township Cemetery in Cherokee County, Iowa with graveside prayers by Reverend Erik Swanson. Visitation will be from 4:00 p.m. until 8:00 p.m. Thursday, March 12, 2015 at Meyer Brothers Colonial Chapel with family present at 6:00 p.m. and a Prayer Service, conducted by Pastor Verlyn Schaap, beginning Thursday evening at 7:00 p.m. Online condolences may be offered to the family at www.meyerbroschapels.com. Memorials may be directed to the Siouxland Community Health Center in Sioux City and Friendship Community Church in Sergeant Bluff, Iowa. Thor was born on July 29, 1965 in Milwaukee, WI to Harold and Kathryn (Lindall) Swanson. He spent his childhood in the nearby community of South Milwaukee, and graduated from Racine Prairie High School in Racine, WI in 1983 and St. Olaf College in Northfield, MN in 1987. On June 27, 1992, Thor married Karin Bjorge of LeMars, IA. Their daughters, Trina (17), Kari (15), and Johanna (11) were all born in Sioux City. With his family, Thor enjoyed playing tennis, listening to music concerts, vacationing at Lake Okoboji, and discussing Sunday sermons. A highlight of the family was their time living in Kijabe, Kenya, as medical missionaries in 2006-2007 and 2010 with Africa Inland Mission and World Medical Mission-Samaritan's Purse. From 1987 to 1992, Thor studied theology at Fuller Theological Seminary in Pasadena, CA, The Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago, and Trinity Evangelical Divinity School in Deerfield, IL. He would go on to serve as Associate Pastor of Valley Evangelical Covenant Church in Stillman Valley, IL from 1992 to 1995, as a supply pastor at many churches in Illinois, Wisconsin, Iowa, Minnesota and Kenya from 1995 until 2007, and as Associate Pastor of Friendship Community Church in Sergeant Bluff, IA from 2008 until his death. Thor was on the clergy rosters of the Conservative Congregational Christian Conference (CCCC) and the Lutheran Congregations in Mission for Christ (LCMC) denominations and cherished the working Christian principles of "In essentials unity, in non-essential liberty, in all things charity". From 1993 to 2000, Thor did medical studies at the Medical College of Wisconsin in Milwaukee and the Siouxland Education Medical Foundation in Sioux City. Over his career, he practiced medicine at Siouxland Community Health Center in Sioux City, Siouxland Medical Education Foundation in Sioux City, and AIC-Kijabe Hospital in Kijabe, Kenya. Although originally trained as a family medicine physician, Dr. Swanson later developed special interests in HIV Medicine, Tropical Medicine, Travel Medicine, Pain Medicine, and Addiction Medicine. Besides his time in Kenya, Thor also did shorter overseas medical mission stints in Nepal, Tanzania, and Honduras. Over his career, Dr. Swanson had a special interest in training residents and medical trainees of all types, relishing the chance to introduce them to the medical care of the marginalized. At the time of his death, Thor was a staff physician and HIV director at Siouxland Community Health Center in Sioux City. Later in life, Thor pursued bioethical studies at both Trinity International University in Deerfield, IL and Loyola University in Chicago. At the time of his death, he was chair of the ethics committees at both Mercy Medical Center and Unity Point-St. Luke's Hospital in Sioux City. Thor was a former collegiate tennis player, a lifelong genealogy enthusiast, a proud stockowner of the Green Bay Packers, and a committed reader and book collector. He was an admirer of Arthur Ashe, C.S. Lewis, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, and Albert Schweitzer. For the last 2 decades, his life mission statement was the early anonymous Quaker proverb: "As we go through life, let us do as much good as we can, for we pass this way but once". Dr. Swanson was treasured by family, colleagues, patients, and friends. He touched the world in a profound way always positive, always helping those in need, always sharing God's love. Besides his immediate family, he is survived by his parents of South Milwaukee, WI; his brother Reverend Erik (Melinda) Swanson of Barberton, OH; his sister Kristen (Walter Reichelt) Swanson of South Milwaukee, WI; his father-in-law and mother-in-law Dr. Tom and Ina Bjorge of LeMars, IA; his sister-in-law Dr. Jill (Jeff) Nelson of Omaha, NE; his brother-in-law Jan (Bernadette) Bjorge of Reno, NV; his sister-in-law Britt (Michael) Krizmanich of Omaha, NE; and well as numerous nieces, nephews, uncles, aunts, cousins, and other relatives.