Huntsville pastor, chaplain dies at 89 after decades of ministry

Ted Swann, 89, of Athens, died Sept. 15 at Huntsville Hospital Hospice.

Born in Etowah County in 1933, Swann gave his life to the Lord when he was a young boy. The day after he graduated from Cleveland High School in April 1951, he volunteered for the U.S. Air Force. He used the GI bill to attend Samford University. For 25 years Swann led churches in north Alabama. He was the pastor at Sherwood Baptist Church, Huntsville, for 16 years. After going to Southeastern Seminary, he served as pastor to churches in Virginia and North Carolina and as a prison chaplain for the N.C. Department of Corrections at Foothills Correctional Facility and in Burke County where he ministered to young offenders. He also was chaplain at Burke Hospice and Palliative Care for 12 years in Morganton, North Carolina.

Although he was a member of First Baptist Church Morganton, around 2010 he was asked to teach a Sunday School class at Glen Alpine United Methodist Church. He continued to teach this class even after becoming disabled in 2019 and moving to assisted living in Morganton.

He is survived by four children, seven grandchildren and six great-grandchildren.