Rose Marie Dickens Swanson was an exemplary educator and a nationally admired community leader who served Detroit students with unwavering compassion while raising her own three children and serving as a role model to countless others.
“She loved children and she was a wonderful educator and administrator,” said her lifelong friend Mattie Jones Johnson of Southfield. “She was a scholar who blazed a trail for others to follow.”
Swanson, 83, died Dec. 15 in Denver, Colorado, where she had relocated a few years ago to be closer to two of her three children. After battling and recovering from COVID-19 this summer, Swanson passed away due to several other health complications.