Glenn with Edgar Winter — Lyric Theatre in Stuart, FL (June, 2007) Photograph Courtesy of Fred Asprinio
A graduate of one of the Southeast’s most prestigious prep schools, St. Edward’s Upper School in Vero Beach, Swift obtained a B.B.A. in Finance from Stetson University in Deland, Florida. He then began a successful career as an investment advisor and worked for a number of leading financial institutions over the next 25 years. Because history and writing were always his true passion, Swift returned to academia and received a Master of Arts in European History from the University of Central Florida. While attending graduate school in the late ’90s, he began the pursuit of a childhood dream by writing professionally.
Success came quickly.
Shortly after penning his very first article, a feature story written for the Vero Beach Magazine entitled “How Vero Man Was Found And Lost Again,” Swift received the Florida Magazine Association’s 1999 Bronze Award for Writing Excellence/Best In-Depth Reporting. Later that year, he received a grant from the State of Florida to compile a history of Hunter’s Creek — a very successful, planned community just outside of Orlando. Swift then turned the project into his master’s thesis, which was later published by the Hunter’s Creek Community Association as A History and Critical Analysis of Hunter’s Creek. Just before graduation from UCF in 2001, he was inducted into the international history fraternity of Phi Alpha Theta for his outstanding scholarship.
Prior to relocating to Florida in early 2007, Swift lived in Laguna Beach, California, where he worked as Managing Editor of Newport Beach-based Kettley Publishing (now Advisys) — a cutting-edge e-publisher for the financial services industry. He has also worked extensively as a travel writer for Miles Media Group — one of North America’s leading destination publishers — and as a feature story writer for the Gulfstream Media Group (i.e., VeroLife, Stuart Magazine, Jupiter Magazine, The Palm Beacher and Boca Life) — the largest high-end magazine publisher in the state of Florida.
A passionate progressive and entrepreneur, Swift is outspoken about what he sees as the unbridled growth in multi-national corporate power and its assault upon the environment and the democratic process. He is an adamant supporter of former British Prime Minister Tony Blair and the center-left philosophy of the Third Way — a synthesis of liberal and conservative principles that seeks to transcend the traditional antagonisms between labor and capital, thereby creating a progressive society in which wealth and opportunity are in the hands of the many, not the few.
Swift is currently the Keiser University University Department Chair for Social Sciences and Program Director, General Education at the Keiser University Flagship Campus in West Palm Beach, where he also teaches American History and supervises the campus’ Study Abroad and Hawk Talk speaker series. Swift also serves as Adjunct Professor of History at Palm Beach State College, as Editor in Chief for OWW Media, and as Editor at Large for Vero’s Voice.
He is the son of the late Reginald Swift, a senior British government official who supervised Lend-Lease purchases for the United Kingdom during that country’s heroic struggle against Nazi Germany, and the late Dorothy Swift, a first-class entrepreneur and Madison Avenue marketing professional. Swift is the nephew of the late singer and actress Dorothy Collins of Broadway and Your Hit Parade fame, and the proud father of one son, Glenn Swift, Jr.