Swan McLean Grant, of Greenwich, Conn., passed away peacefully in her home on Sept. 4, 2025.
Born in 1922 in Wilkes-Barre, she was the only child of William Swan McLean, Jr. and Frances Leigh Ricketts McLean. As the daughter of a Brigadier General of the Pennsylvania National Guard and President Judge of the 17th Judicial District of Pennsylvania, she grew up in the aftermath of WWI, the Depression and the United Mine Workers strike, in which her father had a role in the settlement. Summers were spent at her mother’s family’s property on North Mountain, much of the original land now known as Ricketts Glen State Park.
She attended the Ethel Walker School and Smith College and met her future husband, John Barrett Grant, at a Yale versus Smith field hockey game when she was seventeen. During World War II, she worked for Sperry Gyroscope on the LORAN project, which was kept secret at that time. She married Barrett Grant on Dec. 7, 1946, and they lived in the carriage house at his family’s home, the Tomes-Higgins House, until they moved to back country Greenwich.
The drafting she learned at Smith, as a “war minor,” led to a certificate in Landscape Design from the New York Botanical Garden but that was sidelined by serving the Town of Greenwich on Planning and Zoning as a citizen member for nineteen years. Following that, she served on the Representative Town Meeting. She held positions on the boards of the Greenwich Historical Society as a trustee and the Greenwich Land Trust as a director. As a long-standing member and president of the Green Fingers Garden Club, she was involved in beautification efforts in Greenwich.
After North Mountain was sold, part of every summer was spent in Wauwinet, Nantucket Island. She also enjoyed travel with friends and family.
She was pre-deceased by her husband, Barrett; her son, John Barrett Grant Jr. and his wife, Julia Grant; and Leigh Grant’s husband, John Antony Doumlele Jr.
She is survived by two daughters, Leigh Grant of Norwalk, Conn.; and Elizabeth Grant and her husband, Mark Pruner, of Greenwich; four grandchildren, John B. Grant III, Ann Grant (married to Paul Novick), Nicholas Doumlele and Kyra Doumlele (married to Ashton Todd); and five great-grandchildren.