FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. - Longtime community volunteer Sylvia Swartz, of Fayetteville, will provide $1 million to the University of Arkansas to fund a chair in the political science department of the J. William Fulbright College of Arts and Sciences.

Mrs. Swartz established a charitable remainder unitrust that pays income to her and family members for a period of time before funding the Sylvia G. Swartz Endowed Chair in Political Science. At the time the chair is funded, her gift is expected to have accumulated more than $1.5 million.

UA Chancellor John A. White said, "We are grateful to Sylvia Swartz for designating a trust to establish a chair in the political science department. Mrs. Swartz has always had an interest in our community’s political and civic activities and Fayetteville is the better for it. She has seen many changes in the community and on campus over the past seven decades.

"Building the size and quality of the faculty is a significant priority of the Campaign for the Twenty-First Century. Mrs. Swartz’s gift will bring us ever closer to realizing our vision of a nationally competitive student-centered research university serving Arkansas and the world," White continued.

Endowed chairs are valuable tools in the recruitment and retention of University of Arkansas faculty. Endowed chairs generate resources to reward a renowned professor for past academic achievement and enable the professor to pursue research and innovative teaching methods. A named chair may enable a scholar to spend more time in direct contact with graduate and undergraduate students. Income from an endowment gift can supplement a distinguished faculty member’s salary or provide funds for teaching and research expenses.

Donald R. Bobbitt, interim dean of the Fulbright College said, "The Fulbright College greatly appreciates Mrs. Swartz’s gift to the College. She has an extraordinarily historical perspective on how politics in our community have evolved over the years and we are honored to carry on the Swartz legacy though this endowed chair in political science."

Originally from Cincinnati, Ohio, Mrs. Swartz earned a degree in liberal arts and a master of arts at the University of Cincinnati and became a school teacher in Cincinnati teaching at the primary and high school levels. She had a great interest in plant ecology and continued her own studies on the subject under a well-known botanist.

Mrs. Swartz attended the University of Michigan where she was studying for a doctorate in botany. During this time she was active in both the American Association of University Women (A.A.U.W.) and in the League of Women Voters. She met her future husband, Delbert, who earned degrees from Miami University of Ohio (botany and bacteriology), a master’s from Michigan Agriculture College (now Michigan State) and a Ph.D. from the University of Michigan, at this time as well. They shared an interest in botany and ecology and were married in 1928. The Swartzes moved to Fayetteville in 1929 when Dr. Swartz accepted an assistant professorship of botany at the U of A.

In 1936, they moved to the house on a dirt road near the UA campus, where Mrs. Swartz still resides. Mrs. Swartz, and her friend and neighbor Mrs. Hotz, asked the City Council to name the road Razorback Road after the nearby stadium and the University’s mascot in the mid-1930s.

The Swartzes’ son, James, was born in 1937. When he began elementary school, Mrs. Swartz became active in the PTA, which led to her continued work in educational and community issues in Fayetteville. She continued her work with the A.A.U.W. the League of Women Voters and served on the United Fund Board, the Public Library Board and city manager’s board in the 1940s.

In 1949, Dr. Swartz was named chairman of the botany and bacteriology department, a position he held for 15 years. Over the years, he additionally served as the president of the Southwest Conference and vice president of the National Collegiate Athletic Association. During his teaching career, he began the process of compiling information for a modern dictionary of botanical terms for use as a college text. After Dr. Swartz’s death in 1966, it was Mrs. Swartz who, with the help of a professor in the English department, ultimately finished her husband’s 30-year project, and published the "Collegiate Dictionary of Botany," in 1971.

Mrs. Swartz continued to have leadership roles in community organizations. She served as president of the No-Ark Girl Scout Council and a longtime supporter of Girl Scouts. She served on the committee that helped located the current Girl Scout camp in Northwest Arkansas. She was an original member of the Unitarian Church in Fayetteville and served for many years on the governor’s committee on the aged. She also served as member of the Ozark Youth Association, the Youth Bridge board, the Mental Health board, the Juvenile Court Advisory Committee and the Quorum Court of Washington County. She was the first woman elected to the Fayetteville City Board of Directors and served as assistant mayor for three years. She is credited with beginning the school lunch program at Leverett Elementary School in the 1940s, significant for its emergence during a time of food rationing. She worked for the adoption of the city manager plan and advocated joining the County System as a branch to improve the library.

Mrs. Swartz has been honored and recognized many times beginning in 1926 for her contributions to the community and was recognized in 1999 during Women’s History Month, "For Pioneering Spirit," in conjunction with the League of Women Voters, A.A.U.W., Business and Professional Women and the Democratic Women of Washington County. She was featured several times in local newspapers for this around the time of her 100th birthday that same year.