Funeral services were held here yesterday for Benjamin Harrison Swig, chairman of the Board of the Fairmont Hotel and a philanthropist active in Jewish and non-Jewish communities. He died Saturday at the age of 86 after a long illness.
Born in Taunton, Mass. on Nov. 17, 1893, Swig was a real estate operator in Boston and New York City from 1925 to 1945. In 1945, he bought the elegant Fairmont Hotel on famed Nob Hill and resided there in its penthouse suite. He was also a partner in the real estate firm of Swig, Weiler and Arnow of San Francisco and New York City.
In recent years he had not been active in the family business and had devoted himself to philanthropy. He was the recipient of more than 170 citations and awards and knighted twice by the Vatican for humanitarian work.
Swig was a member of numerous organizations. Among others, he was a member of the Board of Directors of the American Joint Distribution Committee and of the national Boards of the United Jewish Appeal, Israel Bond Organization, American Jewish Committee, Zionist Organization of America, Jewish Welfare Board and the Jewish Telegraphic Agency.
Swig was also associated with the Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion, the American Society for Technion, the Board of Trustees of Brandeis University, the Board of Overseers of the Jewish Theological Seminary of America, American Friends of Tel Aviv University, the Board of Governors of Hebrew University and the American Friends of Hebrew University, the national advisory committee of Dropsle College and was chairman of the American-Israel Cultural Foundation.
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The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
