Jon D. Swenson

Jon D. Swenson, age 75, of the Packanack Lake section of Wayne, N.J., passed away peacefully on September 10th, 2022, after a courageous but brief battle with pancreatic cancer.

Born on September 17, 1946, in Newark, NJ, to the late Edwin G. Swenson and Pearl H. Swenson, Jon was an only child who grew up in North Caldwell, NJ.   After graduating in the first class of West Essex High School, he attended Stevens Institute of Technology in Hoboken where he earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Mechanical Engineering. In 1972, Jon graduated from NJIT (formerly Newark College of Engineering) with his Master of Science in Mechanical Engineering.  Jon also holds a Professional Engineer license with the State of New Jersey.  

In 1970, Jon met his future bride (Joyce Halloran) at Billy Bud’s Shanty Pub in Fairfield, NJ. He asked her to dance and then asked for her phone number.  Immediately thereafter, they dated, and eventually were married on October 21, 1972, at St. Paul’s Roman Catholic Church in Prospect Park, NJ.  They were blessed with two sons and a daughter to complete their family.

Upon graduation from Stevens, Jon began his employment at Becton Dickinson & Company, first in Rutherford, and later in Franklin Lakes, where he spent his entire 37- year career.   Jon worked in various divisions, starting in machine design and advancing to product development and management. Ultimately Jon became the Director of Needle and Blade Technology and was a global leading expert on needle sharpness, reducing the pain felt by millions of patients who receive a needle stick each year.  Jon was led by guiding principles of exactness, precision, excellence, perseverance, and ingenuity in everything he pursued.  It was his desire to improve the patient experience, especially for young children, so that through its design each needle would be as painless as possible.   Jon was awarded numerous patents, and in 2001 received Becton Dickinson’s Wesley J. Howe Award for Technological Innovation for a Lifetime Achievement in Needle Technology.  Many of the manufacturing machines designed by Jon almost fifty years ago are still running and operational in multiple Becton Dickinson facilities.  

Jon had a solution for every problem.  His grandchildren affectionately called him “Mr. Fix It” because he could fix anything.   He cherished doing projects around the house with his children, took exceptional pride in his extensive tool collection (especially obscure ones that solved unique challenges), and loved teaching his grandchildren how to ride his beloved John Deere lawn tractor.  His youngest grandchild, only 6, learned to drive it this past summer!  Jon had a deep love for the history, power, ingenuity, and legacy of steam railroad trains, especially the Pennsylvania Railroad. It was an ongoing challenge to find a railroad book that could be gifted to Jon, as he already owned a copy of (and read cover-to-cover) almost all of them that were in print.   He could recite the wheel configuration, hauling capacity and years of operation for nearly any locomotive from memory and enjoyed taking road trips to visit obscure railyards and stations from past and present. Around the house, Jon spent considerable time attending to his many gardens with pride and joy.    

For Jon’s family and friends, Jon was selfless with his time and willingness to help.  He volunteered for his children’s youth baseball and soccer teams in Packanack Lake, as well as committees that erected floating curtains at the swim areas of the lake’s two beaches. He oversaw a large project to install lights at the sports fields and always made time to have a catch with his children, so long as they were prepared for a lesson in applied physics. He took genuine interest in others and saw friendship as its own reward.  Jon was a daily reader of the Bible and his strong beliefs guided him through his everyday life.

Jon loved that Joyce was one of four children and had a large family.  Together they hosted many family holiday parties at their home and no detail in the preparation was overlooked.  Jon organized many of the family events, whether it was planning the annual Christmas tree cutting in PA, planning the after-tree gathering at a local restaurant, hiding Easter eggs for the Easter egg hunt, getting the Easter pinata ready for all the children, or even dressing up as Santa for the Christmas Eve party.

Jon is survived by his wife of 49 years; Joyce Swenson (nee Halloran) of Wayne, NJ, two sons; Kirk (Wendy) of Mountain Lakes, NJ, Kevin of Silver Spring, MD; a daughter, Katy Lauber of Essex Fells, NJ, and is affectionately known as Grandpa and Poppy to his six grandchildren (i.e., Luke, Addison, Russell, Nora, Will, and Connor).  Jon is also survived by two very special cousins Raymond and David Scaravaglione of NY and Florida, respectively, as well as many nieces and nephews.

In lieu of flowers, donations in Jon’s memory would be appreciated to the Tunnels to Towers Foundation or the Lustgarten Foundation for Pancreatic Cancer Research.