Don Swart Sr., (right) accepts the Rotary Club’s Service Above Self Award at Rotary district 5100’s recent annual convention with Past District Governor Dennis Wickham. Swart was a former Wallowa County Chieftain editor and publisher who led the paper through major changes from 1972 to 2000. He died last week at the age of 86.

ENTERPRISE — In journalism there is nothing more paramount than objectively telling the truth. Donald Swart, Sr., former Wallowa County Chieftain editor and publisher, epitomized this value, along with a love and support of community, of people and of the landscapes he cherished.

Swart died May 12 in Enterprise of cancer. He was 86.

Swart, a Wallowa County native, went to work for the Chieftain after his father-in-law, legendary editor Gwen Coffin, asked him to take a job for the summer of 1960. Swart devoted the next 40 years of his life to the paper and the community. He captained the Chieftain, first as news editor, and then as editor and publisher, from 1972 to his retirement in 2000 when he turned over the reins to his son, Rick Swart.

Long-time Chieftain reporter Elane Dickenson said, “Swart steered the Chieftain through many technological changes, from letterpress to offset printing in the 1970s, and later from typewriters and paste-up into the computer age.”

Always open to change, Swart personally built an extra room on to the old Chieftain building for an offset newspaper press, and introduced one of the first commercial computers in Wallowa County. Dickenson recalled Swart said the piece of equipment that was the same as when he started was a well-used pencil sharpener.

Swart was a Korean war veteran who had piloted a U2 spy plane over Russia, China, and North Korea. He brought both self-assuredness and a concern for his community to his work.

“You have to care about what you are doing, but you can’t care very much about what people are saying about what you wrote,” Swart said.

Swart was at the Chieftain’s helm through the proposed last dams on the Snake River, Watergate, the spotted owl and “timber wars” and Salmon listings – all momentous events in a small county. He stood up for rural communities and economies, ranchers, loggers and farmers.

Swart led the community through his compassion, savoir faire and support of clear and effective communication. His legacy includes the large and robust Rotary youth student exchange program, as well as a newspaper that continues to cover the Wallowa County’s people and happenings.