Robert E. Swain

Robert Eckles Swain (January 5, 1875 – May 31, 1961) was an alumnus of and faculty member at Stanford University, a mayor of Palo Alto, California and a founder of SRI International.

Early life Born on January 5, 1875, in Hollister, California, a town that his father and three associates had founded. After two years of high school, Swain entered Stanford University in its fourth class of undergraduates. His professor Jarius Maxson Stillman, head of Stanford's department of chemistry, convinced him to study chemistry. Swain graduated with his bachelor's degree in 1899.

Swain was a strong proponent of the establishment of a research institute at Stanford University, which would eventually become SRI International.

Legacy

Swain and his first wife, Harriet King (Cuthbertson) Swain had two children: Robert Cuthbertson Swain, himself a prominent chemist, and Dorothy Muriel Swain, who married Ralph Norman Begien Jr. Professor Swain's second wife was Juanita Elena (Hiestrich) Jaffe Swain.