Obituary

Erik Swanson of Portsmouth, NH, a student at UNH and worker at Cross Roads House homeless shelter, died Friday on route 108 in Durham of massive head trauma. He was 34.

A native of New Britain, CT, he grew up in Merrimack, NH and graduated from Merrimack High School. He was a freshman at UNH at the time of his death after a long estrangement from education.

Mr. Swanson spent much of his life working for liberal causes, including long stints working for Peace Action and the League of Conservation Voters. He was active in the Unitarian-Universalist church for much of his life, especially in his youth. He served on the Young Religious Unitarian-Universalists steering committee in 1988-89.

Swanson ran for Portsmouth City Council in 1999 and was endorsed by the Portsmouth Herald before going to a narrow defeat. This election season he ruffled many feathers with his incisive political reporting for Jupiter Beat.

Swanson also spent much of his life loving and playing music. He often showed friends his 1993 rock video directed by Steve Hanft (Beck, Elliott Smith). He worked for a few years at Rounder Records in Cambridge, Mass. Recently his Karaoke performances at King Tiki in Portsmouth have been characterized as legendary.

Mr. Swanson also loved the Boston Red Sox. He leaves his brother, Marc of Brooklyn, NY; and two Stepsisters, Jennifer and Jessica of Cambridge and Boston, MA.

A funeral Mass will be said tomorrow at 1 p.m. in the Sanctuary of South Church in Portsmouth, NH. Mr. Swanson will be cremated and his ashes spread across the infield grass at Fenway Park. Please don’t send flowers. Send donations to New Hampshire Peace Action, P.O. Box 77, Concord, NH 03302; or Cross Roads House, 600 Lafayette Road, Portsmouth, NH, 03801.