Townsend Smith Swayze

Townsend Smith Swayze of Tunbridge, Vermont and White River Junction, Vermont died on August 4, 2022 at the Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center in the company of his wife, Felicity Swayze, his son Peter Swayze, and his daughter India Swayze.

T, as he was known, was born in New York City on July 17, 1937.   T was a world-famous rower who competed nationally and internationally into his 80’s.  He began his rowing life at Harvard College as captain of the undefeated 1959 heavyweight crew.  He graduated from Harvard cum laude in 1959.

He subsequently earned Masters degrees at Oxford’s Wadham College and at Princeton’s Woodrow Wilson School prior to joining USAID in November 1963.  In January 1964 he took up his post in New Delhi as Special Assistant to the USAID Director Tyler Wood, and then for John Lewis. He returned to Washington in March 1967 to be Pakistan Desk Officer.  In 1971, T and his colleagues managed to have aid to Pakistan suspended to prevent it being used in ways detrimental to East Pakistan.  Late in 1971 he resigned from the foreign service in protest over US policy which failed to recognize the genocide occurring in East Pakistan.  He then joined the World Bank where he spent 27 years before retiring in 1998.  He and Felicity then moved to Tunbridge, their second home.

In 2012 T was one of 60 honored guests invited to Dhaka by the Government of Bangladesh for presentation of a special award recognizing their role in supporting the liberation of Bangladesh from West Pakistan.  T, a very modest man, was particularly proud of this award.

He is also survived by granddaughter Savitri Mann, of Tacoma, Washington and grandson Ivan Mann, of Minneapolis, Minnesota.  A memorial service will be scheduled for the fall of 2022.

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