Gloria Swydan

Longtime Richmond Valley resident Gloria Swydan, 93, a retired special education paraprofessional who is remembered as warm and welcoming, died Saturday in Oakton, Va., where she had resided for six months.

Born and raised Gloria Thabit in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn, she graduated from Shore Road High School in her native borough. She later attended Keuka College in the Finger Lakes region of New York and Staten Island Community College, Sunnyside.

She and Andrew Swydan wed in 1952, and moved to Richmond Valley in 1958.

Mrs. Swydan worked as a special education paraprofessional at PS 37 in Great Kills for more than 20 years. She retired at age 70.

She was a member of the senior center at Mount Loretto in Pleasant Plains.

Mrs. Swydan was proud of her Lebanese heritage, and enjoyed baking Lebanese pastries for those she loved.

She began roller-skating in high school and continued as an adult, skating well into her 80s, family said.

Welcoming and hospitable, Mrs. Swydan loved entertaining at her historic Tottenville home, one of the oldest in the community, and her house was always filled with family and friends.

She worshiped at Bethel United Methodist Church in Tottenville. While living in Brooklyn, she was a parishioner of St. Mary's Antiochan Orthodox Christian Church.

Andrew, her husband of 49 years, died in 2001.

Surviving are her daughters, Miriam Swydan-Erickson and Victoria Swydan-Serecin, and four grandchildren.

The funeral service will be Wednesday at 10 a.m. in Bethel United Methodist Church. Burial will follow in the church cemetery. Arrangements are being handled by the Bedell-Pizzo Funeral Home, also Tottenville.

Services: Bethel UM Church Wednesday, January 14, 2015 10:00

Visitation: Bedell-Pizzo Funeral Home Tuesday, January 13, 2015 2-4 & 7-9PM

Memorials: In lieu of flowers, contributions in Gloria's name to Bethel UM Church OR St. Mary Orthodox Church

Cemetery: Bethel Cemetery

Location: Bedell-Pizzo Funeral Home

Church: Bethel United Methodist Church