Gail Swant
June 7, 1942 ~ December 8, 2022
Gail Eileen Swant passed away peacefully at Sanford Hospice House at on December 8, 2022, with her sister by her side after a yearlong battle with cancer. Gail was born to Harry and Henrietta Swant on June 7, 1942, in Williston, ND. She grew up and attended grade school and high school at Bainville Public School in Bainville, Montana. Her lifelong love of music began with piano lessons from her mother starting at a very early age. She started playing the piano for the Lutheran Church of Bainville when she was in the 5th grade and continued through high school. In 1960 she enrolled at Concordia College. Gail double majored in chemistry and biology and took many music classes. She graduated with honors in 1964 and then took a teaching position in Finley, North Dakota. She taught in Finley for 5 years before accepting a position at Chinook High School in north central Montana. While still at Finley, she began working on her masters in the summers at the University of North Dakota in Grand Forks. Gail received a Master of Science teaching degree several years later and continued teaching science at Chinook for the next 45 years.
She spent most of her summers in her hometown of Bainville. She spent many, many hours mowing the family lawn and any other lawn or lot in town that needed attention. This included the unwelcome frustration of tinkering with and repairing lawnmowers all in the quest of keeping Bainville looking nice. She enjoyed bus trips with her mother and visited many sights on both the east and west coasts. One of her most memorable trips was a four-island tour of Hawaii. Gail was a faithful letter writer regularly sending long letters to family and friends.
In 2014 Gail retired from teaching to move to Fargo, North Dakota to be with her sister as she recovered from health issues. During the winter months, she followed in her mother’s footsteps and spent many hours making quilts for Lutheran World Relief out of old clothes and donated material. Her last quilt was made out of short shorts from several decades ago. Some quilt squares ended up with pockets! She was an avid NFL, college football, and high school sports fan. She supported high school sports during her teaching years and became a fan of Fargo-area teams during her retirement.
Gail was fortunate to choose a career that she truly loved. It allowed her to use her musical abilities along with teaching science. She enjoyed interactions with students and colleagues and was more aware of their struggles and challenges than they realized. She was always proud of students who put their education to good use. She was able to use her love of music by being available to accompany groups or soloists at school. Gail would also play the piano for church services, weddings, funerals, or other events. She managed to find room for both a piano and an organ in her small apartment.
Gail was an avid reader enjoying educational-type magazines and a variety of books. She limited her trips to Barnes and Noble because she always ended up with an armload of books. She especially liked the “buy two get one free” table. Gail was a regular supporter of Prairie Public Television.
In her retirement years she became her sister’s official dog walker. This gave her not only exercise but the attention of a much-devoted miniature schnauzer, Tillie. Although known for her serious nature, the devotion to Tillie brought out her softer side. Her Fargo friends fondly referred to her as “The Dog Whisperer” because she would sneak treats as often as she could to all the little dogs who adored her.
Gail is survived by a brother David (Meg) in Blue Springs, MO, a sister Linda in Fargo, ND, and two nieces Vickie and Lynne. She is preceded in death by her parents. She has requested there be no service and burial will be at a later date in the Bainville, Montana cemetery.
Memorials are preferred to Sanford Hospice House or a charity of your choice.
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Gail and I worked together at Chinook High School. I worked with High School choir. Gail accompanied the choir as well as soloists and ensembles. Rehearsals, of course, forced us to go out frequentlly to dinner. Gail,was a dear friend. She helped me through some very difficult and tragic events. I miss her and love her always.
I grew up in the block just south of Casey and Henrietta’s in Bainville, MT. Gail was a year ahead of me in school. We were often in the same classroom and classes. David and Linda – I’m so sorry for your loss.
It was my privilege to teach across the hall from Gail for nearly 30 years. She was an amazing teacher who truly wanted to see all her students do well. Many have cited her as a major influence in their lives and careers. After she retired all the churches in Chinook missed her presence as she was always available to play for Sunday morning services. She was an amazing person.
Gail was an outstanding teacher in Chinook. She gained the respect of her students and they still talk about her. My kids were nervous about having her but ended up being so thankful because when in college they felt they were better prepared than their other classmates. She was generous about sharing her musical talent for the entire community but especially her students. We’ve lost a great lady but she will always be remembered fondly.
I so enjoyed reading this bio and getting to know her better through it. I especially liked the line “She enjoyed interactions with students and colleagues and was more aware of their struggles and challenges than they realized.” I think her students were more aware of her love for us than she may have realized we did. Sometimes teaching can be thankless. Much love, Ms. Swant!
I was fortunate to be a student in her class in Chinook and remember much from her teaching.
We are both saddened at the passing of our good friend Gail. We so enjoyed having Linda and Gail along with Tillie visit us in Hillsboro and at the lake, such great times. Gail was always so good to our dog Coco, always a bag of treats hidden away for Coco and Tillie. Such a kind and generous friend, we will miss you.
Gail was a staunch friend the many years we both taught in Chinook. We generally started our days visiting, long before students arrived. In the winter, her room was chilly, so she invested in a little heater which she called her “teacher toaster.” Good times. I miss her already.
I am a former student, only one year of science, but she accompanied many concerts and ensembles. Miss Swant will never be forgotten at Chinook High School!!!! Sending prayers to the family.
I noticed this name in the obituaries and wondered if this is the Gail Swant that taught chemistry in Finley,ND. Sure enough. Miss Swant was my science teacher in Finley – chemistry and biology and maybe physics. She was a good teacher – strict and down to business. Sounds like she had a good life.
I was a student of Miss Swant’s in Finley ND. She was my Chemistry teacher, and I recall for 1/2 of the final test was a written exam and 1/2 was lab: We had to determine which elements we were given by means of Chemistry lab. For the lab section, we had to do experiments to determine which 2 elements we were given…we did not all get the same elements…we either got 100%, 50% or a 0 on the lab portion. When I took Chemistry in nursing school, I rolled my eyes more than once when my chemistry instructor identified some of the elements incorrectly, and whispered to my friends “He’s got it wrong!!” And yes, she was very musical. Ironically, a few decades later, I lived in Bainville, MT for 10 years and benefitted from her and her mother being organist at the church I attended.
Miss Swant was my chemistry teacher in Chinook, Learned so much. And did get the “look” more than a few times with experiments went wrong. but the standards she taught about process I still use in life
thanks
I grew up in Chinook and had Ms. Swant as a teacher from 00-03. I was a pretentious troublemaker as a young person and Swant was a hard teacher, whom was impossible not to respect. I did not expect to be as emotional as I have been this week, hearing of her loss. I never went to college, but looking back now, I feel like she did a lot more to prepare me for the world than i realized or could appreciate when I was in her classes. I had older siblings who had her as a teacher- her reputation as an educator who would take no crap off of punks like me preceded her in legendary proportions. And she lived up to the legend. I was always a more creative/bohemian type kid, and her having basically perfect vocal pitch and a lot of musical background made learning about wavelengths and science things that are the building blocks of creative things make the world around me seem more interconnected than I realized at the time.
When I was in high school, for night show/talent show one of the graduating classes did a comedy sketch where students played charicature/lampooning versions of the CHS teaching faculty. There was apprehension about how Ms. Swant would react. She had a very distinct way of talking and was a prefect “straight man” to the foil of the rest of the ensemble so far as story telling and joke construction were concerned. So far as I know she told the student who portrayed her thst nught in the sketch that they should sign up for her physics class the next school year. I remember being afraid of how she would react, but she was such a good sport about it.
She was known for being a hard-ass, but she had a great, dry sense of humor, and sometimes she would laugh at her own jokes, which humanized her to me. She showed us old cassette deck and slide show analog science reels that seemed archaic, but she insisted they just had good information, still worked. But then would sort of mystery science theatre 300 them and poke fun at the narrators or graphics and stuff.
She was way WAY funnier than I could appreciate when I was taking classes from her. I still rememeber things she said that made her laugh, but flew over our heads and then laugh about them now.
I was a little a little pot-smoking troublemaker, and not very interested in science as a young person, but I cried a lot this week over the death of this legendary educator. She had a bigger impact on me than I realized she was going to when i spent the most time with her, and I feel blessed that I got to have her as a teacher growing up. She was way better at her job than she needed to be, and I am thankful for that. I deal with physics and chemistry concepts every day in large scale commercial construction, and there are echoes of the things she taught us reverberating through my day to day all the time.. that was not a thing I expected, but I am better off for it and her influence lives on so many of the things us former students put our hands on. When my kids take high school science classes, she will be the unmatchable standard I hold their teachers against.
Gail Swant was uniquely exceptional! No one compared to her as an educator, either at Finley HS as my chemistry teacher or at Concordia College, her alma mater and mine. She was tough, intuitive, fair, and brilliant. Along with formulas, carbon chains and exciting labs she taught us about so much about ourselves…to struggle and figure out unknowns both about chemistry and our fragile teen selves. She was absolutely the most influential educator in my life and I thank God she was an integral part of my HS senior year. On a more personal note, “God bless the gifts you shared so fully and uniquely with each one of us! Hope we will be re-acquainted someday “on the other side”. Until then, rest peacefully Miss Swant!”