He was appointed to the position following the death of his long-serving predecessor, Louis L. Goldstein, in July 1998 and served until January 1999, when former Governor William Donald Schaefer took office after having won the November 1998 election.
He has served as chairman of the Board of Governors of the Calvert Marine Museum, president of the Friends of Jefferson Patterson Park and Museum, chairman of the Board of Directors of the Asbury-Solomons Retirement Center and secretary of the Patuxent Partnership.
In 1999, he was named State Employee of the year by the Maryland Chapter of the American Society for Public Administration.
This award recognizes an employee's single outstanding accomplishment or sustained high quality of performance over a significant period of time in State of Maryland government service.
[citation needed] He resides with his wife, Dorothy DeBoy Swann in Solomons Island, Maryland.