Obituaries: Trenton Haack and Alfred W. Swinyard

US research is mourning Trenton Haack, 36, Director of Qualitative Services for Burke Marketing, who died unexpectedly last Tuesday at the Georgetown Hospital in Washington D.C.; and University of Michigan research professor Alfred W. Swinyard, 93.

Haack's many professional affiliations included the MRA, QRCA, Pharmaceutical Marketing Research Group, ESOMAR and the Creative Problem Solving Institute.

He graduated from Miami University at Oxford and earned a Masters of Business Administration in International Business from The George Washington University. A keen traveller, he visited every continent except Antarctica and every state except Alaska.

He is survived by both parents, Kenneth O. and Candace (Summer) Haack; a sister, nephew, two nieces and his paternal grandmother.


Swinyard, Professor Emeritus and Associate Dean Emeritus at the Ross School, died on September 30. He was born in Logan, Utah in 1915, earned a Harvard MBA in 1939 and served in the US Army in World War II. From 1946 to 1957, he was professor of marketing and chairman of the marketing department for the College of Business Administration at Syracuse University..

In 1962 the University of Michigan appointed him Professor of Business Administration and Director of Business Research at Ross, in which role his many achievements included development and supervision of the research program at the Bureau of Business Research. He retired from the University in 1980. His private sector work included time as director of management research for Booz, Allen and Hamilton, MR consultant to Esso Standard Oil Co. and a consultant for General Electric Company.

Surviving family members include June, his wife of 67 years, son and daughter, six grandchildren and four great-grandchildren. The Board of Regents report said he was 'one of those rare individuals who adroitly merged a business career with the academic' and praised his 'humane touch of decency and good will'.

All articles 2006-23 written and edited by Mel Crowther and/or Nick Thomas, 2024- by Nick Thomas, unless otherwise stated.