Ernie Swift was inducted to the WCHF in 1986. After earning recognition as a fearless northwoods game warden (1926-1935), Swift became deputy director of the old Wisconsin Conservation Department. He rose steadily in the ranks, becoming assistant director in 1943 and director in 1947. He left state service in 1954 and served briefly as assistant director of the US Fish & Wildlife Service before accepting appointment as director of the National Wildlife Federation.
Pat Durkin, a member of the WCHF Board of Directors, wrote a recent article about Ernie Swift entitled Deer: Conservation’s Longtime ‘Problem Child’. In it he describes a book written by Ernest Swift, A History of Wisconsin Deer, that covers the first 30 years of Wisconsin’s effort to manage and regulate deer and deer hunting.