The Grantor

About the Book

The Grantor, by Andrew Swanson

ISBN 978-1-4363-5882-8

ID 51773

Following graduation from Pawtuxet University with full honors and two degrees, bachelors and masters in public administration, Arthur Jacobson married his college sweetheart, Jean Hamilton. On returning from their honeymoon in Europe, Arthur became executive director of his family’s foundation, The Rhode Island People’s Foundation, which his family had started during his junior year at prep school. Four and a half years into this position he entered into an eighteen month period in which he lost his best friend and thesis advisor at Pawtuxet University to Alzheimers and four others through death: his advisor/s wife, his mother, his father and finally his wife in a tragic automobile accident.

The combination of all these losses led to a deepening depression and the psychiatrist who treated him recommended that he relocate himself to a part of the country as different from New England as possible so as to escape the constant reminders of these losses. Arthur traveled to the southwest to search out a location for himself as well as for the foundation of which he was now board chairman as well as executive director. His two staff persons relocated with him.

The transition and the work that was involved in relocating the foundation took his mind largely off his past losses and he had only to find another woman who he could love unreservedly to complete the cure of this depression. Two years into Tucson he relocated his residence from a residential hotel to a well located duplex. There he quickly met the seventeen year old, but highly intelligent and mature, woman who was his landlord’s daughter – Heather.

A strong attraction developed between the two which ultimately led to their marrying the summer before Heather began her sophomore year at the University of Arizona. By this time all traces of his earlier depression had disappeared.

Our story tells not only the story of their courtship and marriage but of Arthur’s achievements as head of the now renamed Madera Foundation. Probably his most significant achievement was of stimulating and then chairing a coalition of foundations to collectively fund and support several medical research stations located variously in African countries where several deadly diseases were known to have originated. On one of his visits to one of the stations, his administrative assistant, Susan Johnson, contracted a new disease for which there was no known cure. Those afflicted with this disease typically died of it within twenty four hours. But between the skill of the doctors at the station and a suggestion of Heather’s (by phone) for Arthur to keep constantly in touch with Susie with a wireless connection helped her to fight off the disease and she became the first to survive it’s onslaught.

Heather in the meantime started her own foundation to send talented minority and native American low income students to the University of Arizona as well as to Arthur's almad mater, Pawtuxet University.

Arthur’s Madera Foundation helped by adding additional funds into Heather’s foundation. Heather also ran a successful political campaign as an independent candidate for a seat on the Pma county Board of Supervisors.

This novel tells of several ways in which a prosperous family can use a part of their wealth to help the less fortunate in their community and various worthy causes. The book also chronicles the development of love between Arthur and both of his wives.

About the Author

Andrew Swanson spent the last twenty-seven years of his career as a consultant to nonprofit boards of directors throughout the United States and Canada. He was the first consultant to devote full time to this activity and it involved him in a wide variety of fields of service. His work involved training workshops, strategic planning, leadership training, board/staff relations and assisting clients in funding proposal preparation. During this time he authored four books, three monographs, two manual systems and 175 essays called “Board Sense”. During its last two years Board Sense was available only by free subscription on the Internet and had over 800 subscribers world wide. All of these were related to his work.