To request a copy of this photo for your own personal use, please contact our state coordinator. If you are not a family member or the original photographer — please refrain from copying or distributing this photo to other websites.
Thank you for visiting the Arkansas Gravestone Photo Project. On this site you can upload gravestone photos, locate ancestors and perform genealogy research. If you have a relative buried in Arkansas, we encourage you to upload a digital image using our Submit a Photo page. Contributing to this genealogy archive helps family historians and genealogy researchers locate their relatives and complete their family tree.
Submitted: 3/3/19 • Approved: 3/3/19 • Last Updated: 3/6/19 • R1258585-G0-S3
June 18, 1947 - Nov 15, 2010
He was a longtime manager of the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission. He was found dead at age 63 on Nov. 15, 2010 as a result of an apparent boaing accident. The 29-year employee served at the Potlatch Conservation Education Center and researched ruby-throated hummingbirds. To honor his conservation work, Ducks Unlimited named a Saskatchewan marsh after him in 2007.
-------------
A long-time Arkansas Game and Fish Commission employee has been found dead in an Arkansas County lake.
The body of Don McSwain, 63, was found late Monday afternoon at Cook's Lake in Casscoe.
McSwain was manager of the Potlatch Conservation Education Center at Cook's Lake, a facility operated by the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission.
His death, which appears to have been caused by a boating accident, is under investigation by AGFC wildlife officers and Arkansas State Police. Federal authorities also will be involved because McSwain was found on the White River National Wildlife Refuge, which is federal property.
McSwain was an AGFC employee for 29 years. He was a high school biology teacher before he joined the AGFC July 16, 1981. He became a wildlife officer four months later, and started managing the Cook's Lake facility in Arkansas County July 11, 1999.
He was honored by Ducks Unlimited for his work with the Arkansas Greenwing Camp for youngsters ages 14-16 interested in conservation and waterfowl hunting. McSwain volunteered when the camp began by teaching firearm safety and waterfowl hunting ethics. DU named the Don McSwain Marsh, near Zelma, Saskatchewan, for him in 2007. It covers 99 acres of dense duck nesting cover, 36 acres of wetlands and 9 acres of native parkland.
McSwain also was involved in banding ruby-throated hummingbirds, which are plentiful because of the rich hardwood habitat around Cook's Lake. He and Tana Beasley, education specialist at Cook's Lake, banded more than 1,000 hummingbirds in 2009 as part of The Hummer Bird Study Group, a nonprofit that organizes banding stations. McSwain held Arkansas's only master hummingbird banding permit, issued by the Department of the Interior.
----------
Don M. McSwain, 63, of Casscoe, died Nov. 15. He was born June 18, 1947, in DeWitt to Logan Morris and Daisy Vee Brown McSwain. He had been an enforcement officer with the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission and was currently the education program specialist at Potlatch Conservation Education Center at Cooks Lake in Casscoe. His parents and two brothers, Russell McSwain and Larry McSwain, preceded him in death.
Survivors include his wife, Judy Allen McSwain; children, Donna Padgett and her husband, Lance, of Ethel and Mathew McSwain of DeWitt; two sisters, Ruth Patterson and her husband, Dan, and Marilyn Rousseau and her husband, David, of DeWitt; and two grandchildren, Sydnee Battle and Kassie Padgett. Others who were very special to him were Michael Burford and Star Clark.
Graveside services were held Nov. 17 at Cedarcrest Memorial Gardens in DeWitt, AR.
Contributed on 3/3/19 by hawkinsdonna48
Email This Contributor
Suggest a Correction
Record #: 1258585