Rodney E Swinehart

Rodney E. Swinehart age 75 of Keizer, Oregon died peacefully on December 2, 2025 surrounded by family and his care team. Rod was born in Wyandot County, Ohio as the 2nd child to the late Darrell and Christina Swinehart. Rod grew up in Sycamore and the family later moved to Nevada, Ohio where he was a star player on the Wynford football team, earning a scholarship to play at the College of William & Mary. Rod decided to enlist in the Army and served his country from 1969-1972, in Okinawa during the Vietnam era.

Upon his return Rod traveled around the country hitch hiking with friends looking for a place to call home. After some time he landed in Monmouth Oregon with his lifelong friends Jim Rawlins and Dan Young, enrolling in classes at OCE (now WOU). It was there that he began dating Joanne Erickson in December of 1973, they married in April of 1974 and were married for over 51 years. In 1978 they welcomed their first child, Ben and in 1981 a daughter, Andrea.

Rod worked for the Marion County Sheriffs office and eventually the Marion County Corrections and Courthouse throughout the majority of his career. He had an enormous amount of pride for the work he did to establish and organize the internationally recognized Willamette Valley Adult Threat Advisory Team as well as being a years-long member of the Mid-Valley Student Threat Assessment Team, both teams work towards the assessment, management and mitigation of school and public safety threats. In his work and his personal life, Rod was always a protector and guardian.

Rod was a 2nd degree black belt in American Kenpo, teaching for many years. He played on softball teams and won many chili cookoffs. He loved being on his boat, fishing at Ten Mile lake. And, he never missed a football game featuring The Ohio State Buckeyes. In his final days he was happy knowing that the Buckeyes were victorious over the team up north.

Rod is survived by his wife Joanne (Erickson) Swinehart. Son, Ben (Lindsey) Swinehart of Portland and daughter Andrea Swinehart also of Portland. Rod was a very proud grandfather to Ivy and Henry Swinehart. He is also survived by his beloved brother Brian (LuAnn) Swinehart of Marion, OH.

A memorial service for Rod will be held at Salem Evangelical Church (3rd floor) on December 20th at 11:00. In lieu of flowers Rod asked that donations be made to Tunnels to Towers.

The family would like to extend a special thanks to his incredible care team at Mark Comfort Homes: Divine, Peter, Beatrice and Francis for their warm compassion and Willamette Vital Health for their support.