MILWAUKEE — One of John Swanson’s favorite things to do was drink a cold Miller Lite on his boat at sunset.
Sunday night, family, friends, and coworkers came together at South Shore Yacht Club to do just that as they remembered his life.
The 16-year Bell Ambulance employee died at a local hospital after dive teams rescued him from Lake Michigan Friday night. Law enforcement discovered he had fallen out of his boat and into the water.
Swanson had been an employee with Bell since 2006 as an EMT and field training officer (FTO). As an FTO, he helped train dozens of people, including Aubin Muszytowski, an advanced EMT at Bell.
“There isn’t one person who worked at Bell who didn’t know John in some fashion, either as an FTO or a mentor sitting around a picnic table talking about EMS,” Muszytowski smiled.
Muszytowski was also on Swanson’s sailing team. He says Swanson loved to be out on the water, which was where dozens came to honor his life.
“He really was one of the pieces that kept everything together, and as you can see tonight, there’s a lot of pieces that don’t have a place,” Muszytowski said.
He leaves behind his wife, son, and daughter-in-law. Along with being an EMT, he created a full-scale printing shop with his son, Andy, in 2014 called Wisconsin Graphics LLC. He also worked with the Boy Scouts of America in his free time.
“He was always a guy willing to help. He’d give you the shirt off his back if he could,” Greg Rudoll, a supervisor at Bell Ambulance, said. He helped organize the event.
“He’s family. Today, we’re memorializing our family. We lost a family member and it’s going to be a pretty big hole.”
His wife, Lori, said that Swanson is an organ donor and will be helping dozens of others even after his death.
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