In loving memory of
Herbert Dwight Swartzendruber
​September 2, 1927 - May 2, 2025

Memorial Service

Sunday, July 27, 2:30 p.m.
Park View Mennonite Church
A Reception will follow the service in the Fellowship Hall.  

If unable to attend in person, join the live stream, 
​by clicking Herbert's picture above.

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Obituary

Herbert Dwight Swartzendruber, “HD” or “Swartz,” passed away on May 2, 2025 at Virginia Mennonite Retirement Community in Harrisonburg, Virginia, at the age of 97 years.  

Born on a farm near Kalona, Iowa on September 2, 1927, Swartzendruber had a 50-year career in international relief and disaster assistance, working in more than 50 countries from 1950 to 2000. He was an expert in logistics and management of international disaster response and support to refugee
camps in conflict zones, and served as an expert advisor for the U.S. Agency for International Development’s Office of Foreign Disaster Assistance. He served as a team leader for U.S. disaster response and post-conflict relief efforts in the Horn of Africa, Bosnia, Rwanda, Haiti, Angola, Namibia, Northern Iraq, Dem. Rep. of Congo, Mozambique, Sudan, Madagascar, Chad, Burkina Faso, Liberia, El
Salvador, Bolivia and Dominica. He also helped coordinate humanitarian assistance activities with U.N. agencies, international peace-keeping forces, U.S. and NATO forces following conflict in Bosnia, Serbia, Kosovo, Iraq and Haiti.
Before this he spent 20 years managing international food assistance and emergency relief operations for Church World Service and Lutheran World Relief in Asia, North Africa and Latin America, with long-term assignments in Pakistan, India, Algeria and Brazil. He began his career in post-World War II France
and Germany, where he served as a Mennonite volunteer working in refugee camps and children’s homes. His memoir Service Beyond our Borders – Forty Years of International Humanitarian Service and Lessons Learned Along the Way was published by Masthof Press (Morgantown PA) in 2012.

He is survived by three sons: Fred Swartzendruber, of Reston Virginia; Dan Swartzendruber, of Louisburg North Carolina; and David Swartzendruber of Broadway Virginia; a sister: Ruby Lehman, also at Virginia Mennonite Retirement Community in Harrisonburg Virginia; and a brother: J. Paul Swartzendruber of
Round Mountain California. He also leaves five grand-daughters, two great-grandsons and three great-granddaughters. His first wife, Françoise Marie-Thérèse Swartzendruber, passed away in 2004. A second wife, Faye Swartzendruber, passed away in 2020.