Mark Swartz

My Story

Born in 1957, Mark is just old enough to have vague memories of President Kennedy and family in the White House, but he has clear memories from childhood of his mother quoting from JFK’s inaugural address: “Ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country!”

Mark is a National Park Service “alum,” having begun his 19-year career with the agency as a seasonal Park Ranger at the birthplace. He went on to work over 18-years as a permanent staffer across town at Frederick Law Olmsted National Historic Site, witnessing the formation of their friends group and the “added value” it brought to that site. 

After retiring in 2018, he had tea with current board member Betsy DeWitt in her kitchen, and there and then they “hatched” the idea of creating a friends group for John Fitzgerald Kennedy National Historic Site — ultimately named Friends of the JFK Birthplace. The rest, as they say, is history.