George W. Swenson, Jr. obtained a Bachelor of Science degree in Electrical Engineering from Michigan Tech in 1944. After serving in the Army he received his MS from MIT and then his PhD in Electrical Engineering in 1951 from University of Wisconsin. Following brief periods at Washington University in St. Louis, University of Alaska in Fairbanks, and Michigan State University in East Lansing, in 1956 he accepted a joint appointment in the Electrical Engineering and the Astronomy Departments at University of Illinois, Champaign-Urbana. In 1964 NRAO Director David S. Heeschen asked Swenson to come to NRAO to lead the design team for the Very Large Array. Swenson took a leave from University of Illinois and was at NRAO from 1964-1968. He retired fromremained there until his 1988 retirement.