John Andrew (Jack) Swanson earned a reputation as “Mr. Golf in Manitoba” for his many years of leadership in the sport from 1951 until his death at the age of 68 in 1979.
Born in Edinburgh, Scotland, in 1910, he came to Canada with his parents in 1921. He and his wife Marion were members of Assiniboine Golf Club from the 1930s to 1959, when they moved to Elmhurst Golf and Country Club.
Swanson got into the executive side of the game as secretary at Assiniboine in 1945, then as president in 1949-50. He was vice-president at Elmhurst in 1964-65. He became a member of the Manitoba Golf Association board of directors in 1951 and was president of the provincial body in 1958-59. He also served as secretary-manager of the Manitoba Golf Association from 1971 to 1979.
He became a member of the Royal Canadian Golf Association Board of Governors in 1959 and went on to become national president in 1968. He was named an honorary life member of the board in 1972. He was non-playing captain of Canada’s World Amateur team that travelled to Australia in 1968.
During his term on the RCGA Board of Governors, Swanson served as chair of the membership and public relations committee in 1960, chair of the amateur status and reinstatement committee in 1962, chair of the Canadian junior interprovincial team matches and national junior championships in Prince Edward Island in 1964 and as a member of the junior championship committee in 1979.
Jack Swanson is an inductee into the Manitoba Golf Hall of Fame and Museum Inc., October 5, 2009.