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Created page with "{{Infobox officeholder |name=Lawson Lewis Swearingen, Jr. |office=Louisiana State Senator from District 34 (Ouachita Parish)]] |term_start=1980 |term_end=1991..."
{{Infobox officeholder
|name=Lawson Lewis Swearingen, Jr.
|office=[[Louisiana]] State Senator from District 34 (Ouachita Parish)]]
|term_start=1980
|term_end=1991
|preceded=H. Lawrence Gibbs, Jr.
|succeeded=John Clifford Ensminger, Sr.
|office2=President of the University of Louisiana at [[Monroe, Louisiana|Monroe]]
|term_start2=1991
|term_end2=2001
|preceded2=Dwight D. Vines
|succeeded2=James E. Cofer, Sr.
|birth_place=[[San Antonio]], [[Texas]], [[United States|USA]]
|birth_date=May 27, 1944}
|residence=Fairhope, [[Alabama]]
|spouse=Sharon Harrelson Swearingen
|children=Lawson Lewis (Chip) Swearingen, III<br>
Ashley S. Day
|party= [[Democratic Party|Democrat]]
|occupation=[[Attorney]]; [[Professor]], [[Politician]]<br>
Former university president
|religion=[[Baptist]]
|footnotes='''Note''':<br>
*State Senator Swearingen left the legislature to become president of his ''alma mater,'' which was renamed as the University of Louisiana at [[Monroe, Louisiana|Monroe]] during Swearingen's ten-year tenure as president from 1991 through 2001.
}}
'''Lawson Lewis Swearingen, Jr.''' (born May 27, 1944), is a [[Democratic Party (United States)|Democratic]] former state senator for District 34 in Ouachita Parish, [[Louisiana]], whose service extended from 1980 to 1991,<ref name=senate>{{cite web|url=http://www.senate.la.gov/Documents/Membership/Documents/SenateMembership1880ForwardRevisedMar2011.pdf|title=Membership in the Louisiana Seate 1880 - Present|publisher=Louisiana State Seante|date=January 2012|accessdate=October 27, 2019}}</ref> and a former president of the[University of Louisiana at [[Monroe, Louisiana|Monroe]], whose tenure extended from 1991 through 2001.
==Early life==
Swearingen was born in [[San Antonio]], [[Texas]], to Lawson Swearingen, Sr. (1919–2011), and the former Jeanette Christine "Jean" Cadwallader (1922-2012). The senior Swearingen was a [[World War II]] veteran, a graduate of [[Louisiana Tech University]], and an executive with Commercial Union Insurance in [[Ruston, Louisiana|Ruston]], Louisiana, and, later, [[Boston]], [[Massachusetts]]. The paternal grandparents of Swearingen, Jr., were Annie Marie Estlinbaum and Henry Douglas Swearingen of Eagle Lake, Texas.<ref name=lssobit>{{cite web|url=http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/shreveporttimes/obituary.aspx?n=lawson-swearingen&pid=155157905|title=Obituary of Lawson Swearingen, Sr.|publisher=''The Shreveport Times''|date=December 24, 2011|accessdate=December 28, 2011}}</ref>
Swearingen's mother, Jean, daughter of the Reverend Chester Sabin Cadwallader and the former Carrie Kendall, met her husband at [[Baylor University]] in her native [[Waco, Texas|Waco]], Texas. While the couple resided in Ruston, she was for twelve years the Lincoln Parish deputy clerk of court. She was active in [[Southern Baptist]] women's groups and assisted her husband while they were living in Boston to organize [[Billy Graham]]'s 1980 New England Crusade.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/shreveporttimes/obituary.aspx?n=jean-swearingen&pid=157513081|title=Jean Swearingen obituary|publisher=''Shreveport Times''|accessdate=May 11, 2012}}</ref>
Swearingen, Jr., was reared in Ruston and graduated in 1962 from Ruston High School. He received a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1966 in the field of government from ULM, known at the time as Northeast Louisiana State College. He also excelled in college [[basketball]] under the popular coach Leonard O'Neil "Lenny" Fant (1923-1998).<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.bayou.com/~suelynn/obituaries/lofobit.html|author=Mark S. Rainwater|title=Fant's legacy lives on in 'his boys'|date= October 13, 1998|publisher=''The Monroe News-Star''|accessdate=January 3, 2010}}</ref> In 1969, Swearingen received his [[Juris Doctor]]ate degree from [[Tulane University]] Law School in [[New Orleans]]. He then practiced law for twenty-two years in Monroe while he also served as a state senator.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.123people.com/ext/frm?ti=person%20finder&search_term=cherrie%20walker&search_country=US&st=person%20finder&target_url=http%3A%2F%2Flrd.yahooapis.com%2F_ylc%3DX3oDMTVnZmI1dDc1BF9TAzIwMjMxNTI3MDIEYXBwaWQDc1k3Wlo2clYzNEhSZm5ZdGVmcmkzRUx4VG5makpERG5QOWVKV1NGSkJHcTJ1V1dFa0xVdm5IYnNBeUNyVkd5Y2REVElUX2tlBGNsaWVudANib3NzBHNlcnZpY2UDQk9TUwRzbGsDdGl0bGUEc3JjcHZpZAMxNG03NVdLSWNycFFiQm5VckJ1bnVvNXVXODV4V1V0T21aQUFEbV9B%2FSIG%3D11dt50tr4%2F**http%253A%2F%2Fwww.ulm.edu%2Fthebayou%2Fthebayou.pdf§ion=biography&wrt_id=110|title=’’The Bayou: The History and Traditions of the University of Louisiana at Monroe’’|publisher=123people.com|accessdate=January 14, 2010}}</ref>
==Career==
===Louisiana State Senate===
Swearingen was elected to the Senate in 1979 to succeed Democrat Henry Lawrence Gibbs, Jr. (1919–1993). In his third and last election to the state senate in the nonpartisan blanket primary held on October 24, 1987, Swearingen easily defeated the [[real estate]] figure and fellow Democrat [[Fred Huenefeld]], also of Monroe, 26,087 (77.6 percent) to 7,521 (22.4 percent).<ref>{Louisiana Secretary of State, Election Returns, October 24, 1987.</ref>
Upon his resignation from the Senate in 1991 to become the ULM president, Swearingen was briefly succeeded by former state Representative John Clifford Ensminger, Jr., a [[conservative]] Democrat who switched to Republican affiliation while serving in the House in 1985.<ref name=senate/>
===ULM President===
In 1991, Swearingen resigned with less than a year remaining in his senate term to become only the fourth president of the then Northeast Louisiana University, which was renamed ULM in 1999 during his presidential tenure.
Under Swearingen, the university added four [[Ph.D.]] programs, expanded the pharmacy program, built new library and computer science buildings, and expanded Biedenharn Hall. Certain selective admissions procedures were also implemented. Swearingen retired as the ULM
president in 2002 at the age of fifty-eight.
According to the 2002 ULM ''Chacahoula'' yearbook, Swearingen's resignation announcement occurred barely a week into the 2001-02 school year, effective December 31 of that year. As the yearbook went on, "ULM received a no-opinion" audit for fiscal year 1999, placing its accreditation from the Southern Colleges and Schools in jeopardy. In 2000, however, the school received a qualified audit from then Legislative Auditor [[Dan Kyle]], who said the university 'made phenomenal progress.'"
The ULM yearbook also addressed perceptions that Swearingen didn't spend enough time with students. After ULM received its poor audit, the then-student newspaper, ''The Pow Wow,'' released an editorial suggesting Swearingen should resign. Making matters worse for Swearingen was the "Truth At ULM" website, created by anonymous faculty members unhappy with Swearingen's performance. The website documented what it claimed was low morale among the faculty and severe mismanagement because of Swearingen's leadership."
In the summer of 2002, according to ''The Pow Wow,'' ULM economics professor John Scott was revealed as the anonymous "Truth At ULM" author. Scott said that one of his reasons for creating the site two years ago originated from a meeting held between forty faculty members and Swearingen, ''the Pow Wow'' reported.
According to Scott, Swearingen informed the faculty that budget cuts would be taking place in their salaries, but subsequently contradicted himself by telling the media that no such cuts would occur. Scott said faculty in attendance, himself included, were 'frustrated' not only at Swearingen’s remarks, but also that no one among them were willing to come forward with their side of the story. "That unwillingness to come forward, he said, stemmed from fear of retribution by the former administration," Scott said.
Scott resigned his position that summer to take a job directing the Center For Economic Education and Research at Southern Arkansas University in Magnolia, [[Arkansas]], ''The Pow Wow'' reported.
==Personal life==
Swearingen has also lived in Hammond in Tangipahoa Parish, Louisiana, and, currently, Fairhope in Baldwin County, near [[Mobile, Alabama|Mobile]] in southern [[Alabama]].<ref>People Search and Background Check</ref> He served as a [[professor]] of management, specializing in legal environment of business and other business law courses at Southeastern Louisiana University in Hammond.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://search.selu.edu/search?q=Lawson+Swearingen&site=default_collection&client=default_frontend&proxystylesheet=default_frontend&output=xml_no_dtd&submit.x=9&submit.y=6&submit=GO|title=Southeastern Louisiana University|publisher=search.selu.edu|accessdate=January 14, 2010}}</ref> before retiring in 2010. A retirement reception for Swearingen was held in Southeastern's Garrett Hall on May 6, 2010.</ref> He was an active community leader in Hammond and often lectured on education topics. A [[Baptist]] as well as a member of [[Gideons International]], Swearingen is a trustee having served a term through 2011 on the board of New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.sbc.net/redirect.asp?url=/trustees/2008NOBTS.swf|title=New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary|publisher=sbc.net|accessdate=January 14, 2010}}</ref>
Swearingen is married to the former Sharon Harrelson (born 1947), originally a ULM cheerleader from West Monroe. The couple has two children, Lawson Lewis "Chip" Swearingen, III; and Ashley Swearingen Day and husband, Will. Swearingen has two sisters, Carolyn Swearingen Cody, and husband, Rodger, of [[Houston, Texas|Houston]], Texas, and Sharon Swearingen Tusa of Richmond, Texas. Swearingen's mother resided in [[Shreveport]], where she retired with her late husband,<ref name=lssobit/> who was an active donor in 2008 to the [[Republican Party]].<ref>{{cite web|url= http://google.com/search?q=cache:uHq1IHzgRQIJ:www.campaignmoney.com/political/contributions/lawson-swearingen.asp%3Fcycle%3D08+Lawson+Swearingen&cd=7&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us|title=Lawson Swearingen, Sr., Political Campaign Contributions, 2008|publisher=campaignmoney.com|accessdate=January 14, 2010}}</ref>
==References==
{{reflist}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Swearingen, Lawson}}
[[Category:Louisiana People]]
[[Category:Texas]]
[[Category:Alabama]]
[[Category:Professors]]
[[Category:Educators]]
[[Category:Attorneys]]
[[Category:Politicians]]
[[Category:Democrats]]
[[Category:State Senators]]
[[Category:Southern Baptists]]
[[Category:Basketball]]
|name=Lawson Lewis Swearingen, Jr.
|office=[[Louisiana]] State Senator from District 34 (Ouachita Parish)]]
|term_start=1980
|term_end=1991
|preceded=H. Lawrence Gibbs, Jr.
|succeeded=John Clifford Ensminger, Sr.
|office2=President of the University of Louisiana at [[Monroe, Louisiana|Monroe]]
|term_start2=1991
|term_end2=2001
|preceded2=Dwight D. Vines
|succeeded2=James E. Cofer, Sr.
|birth_place=[[San Antonio]], [[Texas]], [[United States|USA]]
|birth_date=May 27, 1944}
|residence=Fairhope, [[Alabama]]
|spouse=Sharon Harrelson Swearingen
|children=Lawson Lewis (Chip) Swearingen, III<br>
Ashley S. Day
|party= [[Democratic Party|Democrat]]
|occupation=[[Attorney]]; [[Professor]], [[Politician]]<br>
Former university president
|religion=[[Baptist]]
|footnotes='''Note''':<br>
*State Senator Swearingen left the legislature to become president of his ''alma mater,'' which was renamed as the University of Louisiana at [[Monroe, Louisiana|Monroe]] during Swearingen's ten-year tenure as president from 1991 through 2001.
}}
'''Lawson Lewis Swearingen, Jr.''' (born May 27, 1944), is a [[Democratic Party (United States)|Democratic]] former state senator for District 34 in Ouachita Parish, [[Louisiana]], whose service extended from 1980 to 1991,<ref name=senate>{{cite web|url=http://www.senate.la.gov/Documents/Membership/Documents/SenateMembership1880ForwardRevisedMar2011.pdf|title=Membership in the Louisiana Seate 1880 - Present|publisher=Louisiana State Seante|date=January 2012|accessdate=October 27, 2019}}</ref> and a former president of the[University of Louisiana at [[Monroe, Louisiana|Monroe]], whose tenure extended from 1991 through 2001.
==Early life==
Swearingen was born in [[San Antonio]], [[Texas]], to Lawson Swearingen, Sr. (1919–2011), and the former Jeanette Christine "Jean" Cadwallader (1922-2012). The senior Swearingen was a [[World War II]] veteran, a graduate of [[Louisiana Tech University]], and an executive with Commercial Union Insurance in [[Ruston, Louisiana|Ruston]], Louisiana, and, later, [[Boston]], [[Massachusetts]]. The paternal grandparents of Swearingen, Jr., were Annie Marie Estlinbaum and Henry Douglas Swearingen of Eagle Lake, Texas.<ref name=lssobit>{{cite web|url=http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/shreveporttimes/obituary.aspx?n=lawson-swearingen&pid=155157905|title=Obituary of Lawson Swearingen, Sr.|publisher=''The Shreveport Times''|date=December 24, 2011|accessdate=December 28, 2011}}</ref>
Swearingen's mother, Jean, daughter of the Reverend Chester Sabin Cadwallader and the former Carrie Kendall, met her husband at [[Baylor University]] in her native [[Waco, Texas|Waco]], Texas. While the couple resided in Ruston, she was for twelve years the Lincoln Parish deputy clerk of court. She was active in [[Southern Baptist]] women's groups and assisted her husband while they were living in Boston to organize [[Billy Graham]]'s 1980 New England Crusade.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/shreveporttimes/obituary.aspx?n=jean-swearingen&pid=157513081|title=Jean Swearingen obituary|publisher=''Shreveport Times''|accessdate=May 11, 2012}}</ref>
Swearingen, Jr., was reared in Ruston and graduated in 1962 from Ruston High School. He received a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1966 in the field of government from ULM, known at the time as Northeast Louisiana State College. He also excelled in college [[basketball]] under the popular coach Leonard O'Neil "Lenny" Fant (1923-1998).<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.bayou.com/~suelynn/obituaries/lofobit.html|author=Mark S. Rainwater|title=Fant's legacy lives on in 'his boys'|date= October 13, 1998|publisher=''The Monroe News-Star''|accessdate=January 3, 2010}}</ref> In 1969, Swearingen received his [[Juris Doctor]]ate degree from [[Tulane University]] Law School in [[New Orleans]]. He then practiced law for twenty-two years in Monroe while he also served as a state senator.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.123people.com/ext/frm?ti=person%20finder&search_term=cherrie%20walker&search_country=US&st=person%20finder&target_url=http%3A%2F%2Flrd.yahooapis.com%2F_ylc%3DX3oDMTVnZmI1dDc1BF9TAzIwMjMxNTI3MDIEYXBwaWQDc1k3Wlo2clYzNEhSZm5ZdGVmcmkzRUx4VG5makpERG5QOWVKV1NGSkJHcTJ1V1dFa0xVdm5IYnNBeUNyVkd5Y2REVElUX2tlBGNsaWVudANib3NzBHNlcnZpY2UDQk9TUwRzbGsDdGl0bGUEc3JjcHZpZAMxNG03NVdLSWNycFFiQm5VckJ1bnVvNXVXODV4V1V0T21aQUFEbV9B%2FSIG%3D11dt50tr4%2F**http%253A%2F%2Fwww.ulm.edu%2Fthebayou%2Fthebayou.pdf§ion=biography&wrt_id=110|title=’’The Bayou: The History and Traditions of the University of Louisiana at Monroe’’|publisher=123people.com|accessdate=January 14, 2010}}</ref>
==Career==
===Louisiana State Senate===
Swearingen was elected to the Senate in 1979 to succeed Democrat Henry Lawrence Gibbs, Jr. (1919–1993). In his third and last election to the state senate in the nonpartisan blanket primary held on October 24, 1987, Swearingen easily defeated the [[real estate]] figure and fellow Democrat [[Fred Huenefeld]], also of Monroe, 26,087 (77.6 percent) to 7,521 (22.4 percent).<ref>{Louisiana Secretary of State, Election Returns, October 24, 1987.</ref>
Upon his resignation from the Senate in 1991 to become the ULM president, Swearingen was briefly succeeded by former state Representative John Clifford Ensminger, Jr., a [[conservative]] Democrat who switched to Republican affiliation while serving in the House in 1985.<ref name=senate/>
===ULM President===
In 1991, Swearingen resigned with less than a year remaining in his senate term to become only the fourth president of the then Northeast Louisiana University, which was renamed ULM in 1999 during his presidential tenure.
Under Swearingen, the university added four [[Ph.D.]] programs, expanded the pharmacy program, built new library and computer science buildings, and expanded Biedenharn Hall. Certain selective admissions procedures were also implemented. Swearingen retired as the ULM
president in 2002 at the age of fifty-eight.
According to the 2002 ULM ''Chacahoula'' yearbook, Swearingen's resignation announcement occurred barely a week into the 2001-02 school year, effective December 31 of that year. As the yearbook went on, "ULM received a no-opinion" audit for fiscal year 1999, placing its accreditation from the Southern Colleges and Schools in jeopardy. In 2000, however, the school received a qualified audit from then Legislative Auditor [[Dan Kyle]], who said the university 'made phenomenal progress.'"
The ULM yearbook also addressed perceptions that Swearingen didn't spend enough time with students. After ULM received its poor audit, the then-student newspaper, ''The Pow Wow,'' released an editorial suggesting Swearingen should resign. Making matters worse for Swearingen was the "Truth At ULM" website, created by anonymous faculty members unhappy with Swearingen's performance. The website documented what it claimed was low morale among the faculty and severe mismanagement because of Swearingen's leadership."
In the summer of 2002, according to ''The Pow Wow,'' ULM economics professor John Scott was revealed as the anonymous "Truth At ULM" author. Scott said that one of his reasons for creating the site two years ago originated from a meeting held between forty faculty members and Swearingen, ''the Pow Wow'' reported.
According to Scott, Swearingen informed the faculty that budget cuts would be taking place in their salaries, but subsequently contradicted himself by telling the media that no such cuts would occur. Scott said faculty in attendance, himself included, were 'frustrated' not only at Swearingen’s remarks, but also that no one among them were willing to come forward with their side of the story. "That unwillingness to come forward, he said, stemmed from fear of retribution by the former administration," Scott said.
Scott resigned his position that summer to take a job directing the Center For Economic Education and Research at Southern Arkansas University in Magnolia, [[Arkansas]], ''The Pow Wow'' reported.
==Personal life==
Swearingen has also lived in Hammond in Tangipahoa Parish, Louisiana, and, currently, Fairhope in Baldwin County, near [[Mobile, Alabama|Mobile]] in southern [[Alabama]].<ref>People Search and Background Check</ref> He served as a [[professor]] of management, specializing in legal environment of business and other business law courses at Southeastern Louisiana University in Hammond.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://search.selu.edu/search?q=Lawson+Swearingen&site=default_collection&client=default_frontend&proxystylesheet=default_frontend&output=xml_no_dtd&submit.x=9&submit.y=6&submit=GO|title=Southeastern Louisiana University|publisher=search.selu.edu|accessdate=January 14, 2010}}</ref> before retiring in 2010. A retirement reception for Swearingen was held in Southeastern's Garrett Hall on May 6, 2010.</ref> He was an active community leader in Hammond and often lectured on education topics. A [[Baptist]] as well as a member of [[Gideons International]], Swearingen is a trustee having served a term through 2011 on the board of New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.sbc.net/redirect.asp?url=/trustees/2008NOBTS.swf|title=New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary|publisher=sbc.net|accessdate=January 14, 2010}}</ref>
Swearingen is married to the former Sharon Harrelson (born 1947), originally a ULM cheerleader from West Monroe. The couple has two children, Lawson Lewis "Chip" Swearingen, III; and Ashley Swearingen Day and husband, Will. Swearingen has two sisters, Carolyn Swearingen Cody, and husband, Rodger, of [[Houston, Texas|Houston]], Texas, and Sharon Swearingen Tusa of Richmond, Texas. Swearingen's mother resided in [[Shreveport]], where she retired with her late husband,<ref name=lssobit/> who was an active donor in 2008 to the [[Republican Party]].<ref>{{cite web|url= http://google.com/search?q=cache:uHq1IHzgRQIJ:www.campaignmoney.com/political/contributions/lawson-swearingen.asp%3Fcycle%3D08+Lawson+Swearingen&cd=7&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us|title=Lawson Swearingen, Sr., Political Campaign Contributions, 2008|publisher=campaignmoney.com|accessdate=January 14, 2010}}</ref>
==References==
{{reflist}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Swearingen, Lawson}}
[[Category:Louisiana People]]
[[Category:Texas]]
[[Category:Alabama]]
[[Category:Professors]]
[[Category:Educators]]
[[Category:Attorneys]]
[[Category:Politicians]]
[[Category:Democrats]]
[[Category:State Senators]]
[[Category:Southern Baptists]]
[[Category:Basketball]]