Melvin Swig

Melvin Morse Swig (July 31, 1917 – May 14, 1993)Full text of "Melvin M. Swig, President, Jewish Community Federation of San Francisco, the Peninsula, Marin and Sonoma Counties, 1971-1972 : oral history transcript; with introductions by Donald H. Seiler and Robert E. Sinton ; interviews conducted by Eleanor K. Glaser in 1991
Regional Oral History Office, The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley, 1991 was an American real estate developer and philanthropist. He was also the owner of the National Hockey League's California Golden Seals and Cleveland Barons.

Early life and education

Swig was born to a Jewish family in Boston, a son of Benjamin Swig and grandson of politician and banker Simon Swig. He graduated from Brown University in 1939.

Career

Swig was a real estate developer and philanthropist in San Francisco and New York. He was heir to the Fairmont Hotel chain, and former chairman of the Swig, Weiler & Dinner Development Company, of San Francisco and Manhattan, a family-owned real estate company with holdings including the Fairmont Hotels. Swig served in the United States Army in World War II and later moved to San Francisco in 1946.

Swig was President of the Jewish Community Federation and the Jewish Community Endowment Fund in San Francisco. He established the Swig Judaic Studies Program at the University of San Francisco and he also served as chairman of the board.

Swig owned the California Golden Seals after purchasing them in 1975. While he planned to move the team to San Francisco with a new arena, failures to get an arena planned by local politicians meant the end of the Seals. He took the advice of minority owner George Gund III, who suggested that his hometown of Cleveland would be idea for hockey and thus the Seals moved to become the Cleveland Barons on July 14, 1976. Fortunes did not improve for Cleveland, as the first season saw a young team get brutalized on the ice and in the box office, with ownership asking players to take a salary deferment for months. Players later threatened to boycott games until they were paid, which saw Swig, the league and its players association provide a combined $1.3 million to pay the players. Swig was bought out by the Gund brothers in the offseason.

Personal life

Swig was married four times. In 1939, he married Phyllis Diamond with whom he had two children; Steven and Judy. They divorced in 1951. Swig then married Marcia Hove and had twin sons: Robert and Kent. They divorced in 1965. His third wife was Dolores Cochrane who had two daughters from a previous marriage. They were married for seventeen years until her death from lung cancer. His fourth wife was Charlotte Mailliard (née Smith). After his death, she married George Pratt Shultz, who served as the U.S. Secretary of State from 1982 to 1989.

His children were all raised in the Jewish faith. His son Steven Swig, formally served as chairman of the board of the Swig Company in San Francisco, and is married to Mary Green, founder of Mary Green lingerie. His daughter Judy died of cancer in 1975 at the age of 26. His son Kent Swig, a real estate developer in New York, was married to and divorced from Elizabeth Macklowe, daughter of real estate developer Harry B. Macklowe. His son Robert Swig, a philanthropist in San Francisco, died in 2000 at the age of 39; Robert had three children with his wife Kim Baldwin Swig.JWeekly: "S.F. philanthropist Robert Swig of real estate family dies at 39" by ALEXANDRA J. WALL
August 25, 2000

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Swig, Melvin
1917 births
1993 deaths
United States Army personnel of World War II
American people of Lithuanian-Jewish descent
American businesspeople in real estate
Brown University alumni
Businesspeople from Boston
California Golden Seals owners
Cleveland Barons (NHL)
University of San Francisco people
20th-century American businesspeople
Jewish American sports executives and administrators
20th-century American philanthropists
Swig family
20th-century American Jews
Jews from Massachusetts