James William Sweitzer's Obituary
Announcement
This serves as the special announcement of the passing of our father and grandfather James William Sweitzer, may he rest in peace. He left this earthly realm on July 8, 2026, at the age of 92. Jim was a man of God who served the United States of America, was an accomplished banker, and a family man. He was hard on himself but was a person of excellence and had standards...he also knew how to have fun. He lived a very full and adventurous life. Thank you for all of your wisdom and memories. We love you and you will forever be in our hearts and with us in spirit!
Family
James William Sweitzer, born June 27, 1934, in Philadelphia, PA, was the son of Dorothea Pauline Wuchter and Raymond Wendel Sweitzer. He is predeceased by his wife, Margie Fung Sweitzer and his parents. He is survived by his three children, their spouses, his grandchildren & their spouses, one great grandchild, two great step-grandchildren, his sister, and four nephews: Anne Weston & Dale Weston, Lynley (Weston) Nofer & Sheldon Nofer, Ryan Weston & Amber Weston, Maelei Weston, Berkley Fuller, Ronan Fuller, Ethan Weston & Anne Weston, Eve Munoz & Daniel Munoz, Sophia Munoz-Januszewicz & Dr. Władek Januszewicz, Nika Munoz, Tahlia Munoz, Robert P.M. Sweitzer, Jane Klein, Trevor Klein, Gavin Klein, Evan Klein, and Jason Fung.
Life
There was once a boy from Philadelphia, PA, whose name was James William Sweitzer. He was born to Dorothea Pauline Wuchter and Raymond Wendel Sweitzer, on June 27, 1934, in Pennsylvania Hospital, the nation’s first hospital, co-founded by Benjamin Franklin in 1751. He became a brother 11 years later when his sister Jane was born. James was full of curiosity and had a keen intellect, so his parents sought to matriculate him in the area’s best schools; he graduated high school from William Penn Charter. He had 3 years of Honors Scholarship, was part of the football team, squash team, music club, and magazine staff. He had an independent spirit and, consequently, marched to the beat of his own drum. He once visited Florida with friends where they bought a pet monkey and brought it back to Philadelphia. It came as no surprise to his parents, when he ventured out from home in 1953 and joined the Merchant Marines. He sailed the world and saw many interesting and exotic places such as Sri Lanka with its cashew trees, and other ports in southeast Asia, after which he enlisted in the Armed Forces of the United States, Army branch.
While in the army, James attended the Defense Language Institute Foreign Language Center in Monterey, CA, where he opted to learn Mandarin Chinese. Upon completion, he was dispatched to Taipei, Formosa (now Taiwan) where he served in the Security Agency as Specialist, Class 4. As his social circle grew there, a mutual friend set James up on a blind date on April 1, 1959, the day he met his soon-to-be wife Margie Fung. You know how they say there’s a song for everything? Well, the vocal group The Manhattan Transfer captures that fateful meeting in the song, “Until I Met You,” (Click the link.) James was smitten. However, there was one major obstacle to marrying Margie. It was illegal. She was a foreign national and he was an active duty U.S. Army member. James would have to get special permission from the State Department, and he succeeded. Four months later on July 26, 1959, James and Margie tied the knot. The pair kept their vows and rode the rollercoaster of life, inseparable.
They remained in Taipei until after they had their two daughters, Anne and Eve. Under the tutelage of Margie’s father, Professor Harry K.W. Fung, James won a Chinese orator competition and became the first Champion Orator of Formosa, beating out the other competitors who were all Asian. With the family growing, James saw the need to return to the U.S. to complete his education, so they packed up, said their goodbyes to Margie’s parents and extended family, teary-eyed, and headed for the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. James completed his Bachelor of Arts there and went on to post-graduate studies. He completed a graduate study in Chinese Language at Stanford University and then returned to U of M to attain his Master of Arts in Economics. He embarked on a Ph.D. in Economics, additionally, but gained opportune employment in May 1971 before completing it.
Headquartered in New York City, Manufacturers Hanover Trust (MHT) was the fourth largest U.S. bank at the time and they brought James onboard, given his background, in order to capture a foothold in the Chinese financial markets, as Henry Kissinger and President Richard Nixon were negotiating an opening up of Sino-U.S. relations. While in New York, James and Margie were blessed with a new addition to their family, an adorable baby boy whom they named Robert Paul Michael. Just some months after his birth, MHT negotiated a promotion that would send James and family to Hong Kong for 17 years.
James was instrumental in developing MHT’s representative office into a fully licensed and functional international bank in Hong Kong and eventually was also key to opening a branch in Shanghai, China. He was promoted numerous times over the years and earned the title of Senior Vice President and Branch Manager. Under his direction, he helped achieve funding for the construction of Hong Kong’s Mass Transit Railway, a subway that goes underneath the Hong Kong Harbor connecting to Kowloon. He was active in the business community in Hong Kong as well and held the position of Vice President of the American Chamber of Commerce. James’s two daughters eventually returned to the U.S. for college and for life beyond. When Robert reached his junior year of high school, James and Margie decided to move the household back to the states, too.
They lived two years in Chatham, NJ while James commuted to work at the MHT headquarters, after which James took early retirement. Not long after, though, he was recruited and retained as a banking consultant in San Francisco, CA for some years. Finally, at the invitation of their daughter Eve and family, James and Margie moved to Broken Arrow, Oklahoma to live out their golden years.
Now fully retired, James began a study of Hebrew and Greek, along with an examination of the original Biblical texts and related scholarly writings. His new project was a translation of the Bible based on lexicographic and contextual studies vs translations based on accepted interpretations. It was to be a lengthy endeavor which he was not able to complete in this lifetime. In between hours of pouring over Scriptures, James was a big soccer fan watching all of the big games, and enjoyed walking his big Great Pyrenees dog Gustavo, a.k.a Gus. His favorite place to walk Gus was the pond behind Niehaus Park in Broken Arrow. During warm seasons, the two would make their way over to the rose patches there, where James would cut fragrant roses to bring home to Margie.
Final Thoughts
James was a spiritual man, a faithful husband and a cool father. His family traveled and saw the world because of his industrious work ethic and his spirit of adventure. They hiked the terraced rice paddy’d mountainsides of Taiwan, swam in the beaches of Hawaii, visited the famous museums of Europe, ate at amazing restaurants the world over, ran the mountain trails of Hong Kong, and visited the ancient archaeological sites of China, for example, the Terracotta Army in Xi’an, and the Great Wall of China north of Beijing.
Our lives would not have been so full had it not been for the day that our parents said, “I do,” during a time when bi-racial marriages were not the norm. We are forever grateful to our father James William Sweitzer and our mother Margie Fung Sweitzer for their courage to bring together two very different cultures and for the many sacrifices they made along the way in our behalf. They are indelibly written in our hearts and minds, and in our genetic code. Thank you, Dad and Mom. You really are THE BEST!!!
There will be a private family-only viewing at Floral Haven Funeral Home & Crematory, 6500 S 129th East Avenue, Broken Arrow, OK, 74012, on Tuesday, July 14, 2026 at 3:00 p.m. Celebration of Life gathering to be held at the Munoz’s on Wednesday, July 15, 2026 at 4:00 p.m. For address, please contact Eve or Dan via cell numbers, text or call. Thank you.
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