Former Lipscomb professor Dr. Axel Swang died Tuesday, Jan. 8, at the age of 91.
Students who did not know him can get a hint of his importance and impact on those he taught by simply walking across campus: Home to most business and accounting classes, the Swang Center for Business and Administration was named after Dr. Swang in 1984, after his former students raised more than $2 million to dedicate a building in his honor.
Swang not only had knowledge of the business and accounting worlds, he preached for more than 50 years.
The funeral was at 11 a.m. Friday, Jan. 11, at Hillsboro Church of Christ.
Professor Charles Frasier, a former student, co-worker and friend of Dr. Swang, was asked to speak at the funeral service.
He shared what it was like to be in Dr. Swang’s presence on an everyday basis and shared numerous stories, inspiring and funny.
“Dr. Swang loved to teach. He was devoted to his students. He was devoted to the accounting profession,” Frasier said during the funeral.
“But what I appreciated most was his genuine interest in people.”
Even now, 20 years after Dr. Swang left the Lipscomb classroom, students who were told of his death felt a connection.
Although most did not ever even have a conversation with Dr. Swang, they knew who he was.
Former students of his reacted by writing and sending personal reflections to the university.
For example, Lipscomb received an email the day before the funeral from Roy Wagers, a former student of Dr. Swang’s.
Wagers wrote that “Dr. Swang was an awesome FRIEND, MENTOR AND PERSON. This world has lost a real treasure. I came to Lipscomb in the fall of 1969. Coming down from Michigan, in somewhat of a broken condition, Dr. Swang helped me get back on my feet. He took me under his wing.”
Wagers now works as an accountant in Michigan, and has had his own practice since 1976.
In an article published on the Lipscomb homepage, Dr. Turney Stevens, dean of Lipscomb’s College of Business focused on Dr. Swang’s impact on young people: “There is no end to the roll call of accountants who learned their craft from Axel Swang and owe their careers to him.”