BANGOR, Maine -- Clara Swan weighed 1 1/2 pounds when she wasborn.
The doctor who delivered the girl said she would not live a day.
He advised the first-time parents to put her in a shoe box. Itcould serve as a cradle and a coffin.
Swan celebrated her 100th birthday Saturday at Husson University.About 500 people, all of them younger than she is, attended areception in her honor held in the Darling Atrium.
'My parents put me in that shoe box and they put me in the [wood-fueled] oven,' she said. 'They tended to me day and night. When itgot too hot for me inside, they'd put me up on the shelf above thestove.
'Then, when I got big and learned to walk, they had to tie medown,' Swan said as hundreds of well-wishers waited in line to greether in the Atrium. 'I kept trying to run off down the road.'
During the Depression, her family moved to Brewer. Aftergraduating from high school, she went to see Chesley H. Husson, thehead of the Maine School of Commerce, located in downtown Bangor.
'I earned my tuition grading papers and when I graduated, I owedthe school $30,' Swan said Saturday.
She returned to the school six years later as a teacher. For thenext 34 years she served the students of Husson in every waypossible, according to Husson President Robert Clark.
On her way to becoming vice president, Swan served as director ofthe Secretarial Studies department, assistant principal, academicdean, registrar, corporate officer and assistant to the president.She also coached women's basketball for 19 years.
'She was pretty much running the school when I was there,' RobertDuprey, 69, of Presque Isle, and a 1966 Husson graduate, saidSaturday. 'She was a student advocate before anyone came up withthat term.'
Duprey, who taught business education at Caribou High School formore than 30 years, said he made several trips to Miss Swan's officewhile a student.
'I'd cut a class once too often and a professor would drop mefrom a class,' he said. 'So, I'd go see Miss Swan and tell her mystory. She'd write a note to the professor and I get back in. Wethought she liked boys more than she liked girls, but I just thinkthat was because we got in trouble more often.'
Duprey said he and Swan share a birth date -- April 28.
'She always reminds me that it's not the same year,' he said.
Duprey's experience was not unique, according to Clark. It is oneof the reasons Husson continues to honor Swan.
'Clara has shown incredible dedication to the alumni and studentsof Husson University and to the greater community, and we arehumbled and grateful that she is sharing this special day with us,'Clark said.
Swan said if she had not been at Husson on Saturday, she wouldhave been home watching a Red Sox game.
'They're 100 years old too,' she said.
Swan was valedictorian at Brewer High School in 1930 and atHusson College, then known as the Maine School of Commerce, in 1933.
In 1939, after teaching business classes at Mexico High Schooland Foxcroft Academy, she returned to Husson where she worked for 34years, according to a previously published report.
Swan, whose duties at Husson included teaching physical educationtwo mornings a week at the YMCA in downtown Bangor, said 10 yearsago that calisthenics, balance beam exercises, tumbling, basketballand softball comprised most of the activities.
On her 90th birthday, Husson named its new fitness center afterher. Even though Swan has never used any of the machines in thebuilding, she still promotes physical fitness. Swan teaches anexercise class Friday mornings at the Roe Village in Hampden whereshe lives. She also attends every women's basketball game at Husson.
Swan has been inducted into the Bangor Daily News Sports Hall ofFame, the Husson College Sports Hall of Fame and Maine SportsLegends Hall of Honors. She received the Maine High School CoachingAssociation Award in 1992 and was named outstanding businesseducation teacher in the state by the University of Maine.
Beyond her work with the college, Swan has been a tirelessvolunteer with a number of area organizations. Among thoseorganizations are RSVP, St. Joseph Hospital, Altrusa International,Epsilon Delta Alumnae, the Husson Alumni Board, Edith Dyer Libraryand the Eastern Area Agency on Aging.
On Saturday, May 5, she will be honored at commencement with thePresident's Medal of Honor.
