Cele Hahn, center, and City Councillor Barbara Swords, enjoy a September Corn Fesival with Konstanti (Kayo) Crzanowski, left in 2002. The celebration, staged on the 67-acre farm by the Winding River Land Conservancy, was held to thank the 85-year-old farmer for putting the acreage, farmed by his family for more than 100 years, under the state’s Agricultural Preservation Restriction program. (Photo submitted.)
WESTFIELD – Longtime City Councilor Barbara Swords passed away Friday after a short illness. She was 86.
Swords was first elected to the Westfield City Council in 1986 as the Ward Four representative, a seat she held until 2006, when she served the city as an at-large councilor for one year.
Swords spent 22 years as a city councilor and was one of the longest serving councilors in the city’s history.
Secretary of Energy and Environmental Affairs Richard K. Sullivan Jr. said he looked to Swords as a mentor when he was a fellow councilor, then looked to her as an adviser during his tenure as Westfield’s mayor. Even today, he said, Swords’ words of wisdom are with him.
“I learned a lot from Barbara,” Sullivan said. “Barbara was a special person.”
Sullivan called her the “Green Councilor” because Swords spearheaded the city in its environmental efforts.
“She was an advocate for all the environmental issues,” he recalled. “Whether it was water quality or land conservation – she was a leader.”
Sullivan said Swords was a “great mother and great friend” and he was happy to call her the latter.
“I had the opportunity to see her yesterday,” Sullivan said. “I really will miss her personally, and the entire city will miss her.”
City Councilor Mary O’Connell, who has served Ward Four since Swords left the post, said Swords was a great mentor.
“I learned a lot from her,” said O’Connell. “She had such a positive outlook on life. She always looked for the good in any situation.”
O’Connell said Swords was able to disagree with her fellow councilors and still be their friend.
“She would go to the mat with someone, but she never held a grudge,” said O’Connell.
Swords was more than just a councilor, said O’Connell.
“She was a city councilor for 22 years, but that was a small part of what she was,” said O’Connell. “She was a wife, a mother, a friend to many different people and had so many different interests.”
Mayor Daniel M. Knapik served on the council with Swords for six years and said she was a “champion of the environment.”
“She was green before it was popular to be green,” said Knapik.
Knapik remembered Swords as a thoughtful person.
“She had a heart of gold and was the first person to have something complimentary to say,” he said. “She will go down in Westfield history as a leading woman in politics.”
Swords was predeceased by her husband Richard, who was the ward four councilor from 1974-1979, as well as her daughter Pam and sons Kevin and Patrick. She leaves her children Chris, Cindy and Keith.
