Charles Swanson ’76, an alumnus of Pfeiffer College and the University of Tennessee College of Law, has been called “a highly respected” municipal attorney. And no wonder: he has served as the Law Director for the City of Knoxville, Tenn. since 2011. Before that, he became the longest-serving Special Counsel to Knoxville’s City Council, holding that post for 26 years during a 27-year run in private practice. He’s one of only a handful of attorneys in Tennessee history to serve as President of the Tennessee Bar Association (2004–2005) and President of the Knoxville Bar Association (2002).

This past May, Swanson and several other members of Pfeiffer’s Class of 1976 joined the processional at Pfeiffer’s 2026 commencement, underscoring a tradition of featuring 50th reunion classes at graduation exercises.

“It was very meaningful to me,” he said. “I hope it was also at least in some way meaningful to the current graduates to realize that people who graduated from Pfeiffer 50 years ago still feel a connection to the place.”

Swanson, a native of West Virginia, spent much of his childhood in Salisbury, N.C. He began feeling his connection to Pfeiffer — and sensing the difference it could make in his life — several years before he would enroll there. The connection took hold when his late father, Don (who had once worked in the West Virginia mines), joined the ranks of Pfeiffer’s non-traditional students, graduating in 1968. Sandra Swanson, Charles’ sister, graduated from Pfeiffer in 1973.

With a degree in hand from Pfeiffer and, eventually, a couple more from Wake Forest University, Don would enjoy a distinguished career in school administration. For many years before his retirement, for example, he was the Principal at Hurley Elementary School in Rowan (N.C.) County. His wife, Ann Swanson, would become a school librarian, having earned a master’s degree in library science from UNC Greensboro after completing her undergraduate studies at Catawba College.

Sandra also pursued a career in education which culminated in her serving as the school librarian at Granite Quarry Elementary in Granite Quarry, N.C. She’s now a full-time substitute teacher at Cleveland Elementary School in Cleveland, N.C.

Charles Swanson has followed in the footsteps of immediate family members in the sense that, like them, he is upholding their value of “helping people,” albeit through the law. Now 72, he plans to retire at the end of the second term of Indya Kincannon, Knoxville’s current mayor, in December 2027. He’ll have a lot to do during his final months on the job, which entails supervising eight attorneys who provide legal advice or litigate for Kincannon and Knoxville’s nine city departments.

Swanson said that Knoxville is dealing with around “75 active lawsuits” (on top of scores of workers’ compensation and tax collection cases). The lawsuits have been brought for any number of reasons. Somebody slips on an icy sidewalk. Or somebody feels they were abused by police during an arrest.

“We’ll probably get 50 or so of those suits resolved,” Swanson said. “And there will be about 50 other new cases filed during the subsequent year.”

And then there are the contracts. Each year, over 1,000 of these go through Knoxville’s Law Department, where they are negotiated and drafted or amended in some way. The contracts are typically with consultants who’ve been hired to come up with zoning plans, for example, or to design such buildings as the new Public Safety Complex, which houses both the Fire and Police departments.

Contracts make for “a ton of work,” Swanson said. One reason: “A lot of times when you’re doing a consulting contract, you’re doing it based upon the talent of the people who are currently at a firm. What if the person who has this specialized knowledge leaves that company?” There are multiple ways to go, from getting out of the contract to reducing its value, and a well-designed contract will take these into account.

Swanson is part of a remarkable legal legacy: He was married to the late Honorable Pam Reeves, the first female Chief Judge of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Tennessee and the first woman to serve as President of the Tennessee Bar Association.

Swanson and Reeves were the first married couple to both serve as President of the Tennessee Bar Association. Each of the couple’s two children, Reedy and Amanda, is an attorney.

Swanson’s recent visit to Pfeiffer’s Misenheimer, N.C. campus has prompted him to reflect on the highly productive time he enjoyed there as a student. He majored in Psychology, played baseball as a reserve first baseman for legendary coach Joe Ferebee and served as the President of the Student Government Association, during his senior year.

He learned an invaluable lesson from Ferebee, namely “that nothing replaces hard work and discipline.” And he soaked up the benefits of high-quality instruction by professors who prioritized the well-being and betterment of students over everything else. The result: “I was more than adequately prepared to be successful at the University of Tennessee and, frankly, anywhere else,” he said. “I’m so grateful to Pfeiffer for the great start that it gave me.”