Obituary
Dr. Thor David Swanson, of Sioux City, Iowa died on Saturday, March 7, 2015 at the age of 49 after a 4½-year battle with osteosarcoma cancer. Thor was born on July 29, 1965 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. He served as an ordained minister with the CCCC.
A highlight of the family was their time living in Kijabe, Kenya, as medical missionaries in 2006–2007 and 2010 with Africa Inland Mission and World Medical Mission-Samaritan’s Purse. From 1987 to 1992, Thor studied theology at Fuller Theological Seminary, The Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago, and Trinity Evangelical Divinity School in Deerfield, Illinois.
He would go on to serve as Associate Pastor of Valley Evangelical Covenant Church in Stillman Valley, Illinois from 1992 to 1995, as a supply pastor at many churches in Illinois, Wisconsin, Iowa, Minnesota and Kenya from 1995 until 2007, and as Associate Pastor of Friendship Community Church in Sergeant Bluff, Iowa from 2008 until his death.
Thor did medical studies at the Medical College of Wisconsin in Milwaukee and the Siouxland Medical Education Foundation in Sioux City. Over his career, he practiced medicine at Siouxland Community Health Center in Sioux City, Siouxland Medical Education Foundation in Sioux City, and AIC-Kijabe Hospital in Kijabe, Kenya. Although originally trained as a family medicine physician, Dr. Swanson later developed special interests in HIV Medicine, Tropical Medicine, Travel Medicine, Pain Medicine, and Addiction Medicine. Besides his time in Kenya, Thor also did shorter overseas medical mission stints in Nepal, Tanzania, and Honduras. Over his career, Dr. Swanson had a special interest in training residents and medical trainees of all types, relishing the chance to introduce them to the medical care of the marginalized.
At the time of his death, Thor was a staff physician and HIV director at Siouxland Community Health Center in Sioux City. Later in life, Thor pursued bioethical studies at both Trinity International University and Loyola University in Chicago. When he died, he was also chair of the ethics committees at both Mercy Medical Center and Unity Point-St. Luke’s Hospital in Sioux City.
