Ingrid Swenson Power, 76, of Fair Haven, passed away peacefully June 21, 2024, after experiencing complications from a planned surgery. Born March 11, 1948, in Elizabeth to Swen and Isabella Swenson, Ingrid went on to graduate from Upsala College with her bachelor’s degree and later with a master’s from Montclair State University. She had a 29-year career teaching language arts in the Matawan-Aberdeen School District. She instilled in her students and her children a love of language, narrative cohesion and grammar (and if she were still with us today, she would probably have line-item edits to this obituary).
In 1971, she married the love of her life, Thomas Michael (Mike) Power, after they both fell head over heels at a mutual friend’s party. Ingrid was a talented and stylish seamstress, a skill that she only honed with time as she spent hours making her children outfits for special events like the senior prom. She also launched a mid-career small business, Ingrid’s Final Touches, which gave her an outlet for her home décor talent while raising three children.
She was a Brownie leader and children’s choir leader at Church of the Nativity. She was a devoted wife, mom and grandmother and will be remembered for her wit and wry humor, incomparable baking skills, and love of New Jersey summers at the beach.
Ingrid is survived by her husband of 52 years, Mike; her children, Kirsten (KP) Power of Boston, Karin Power (wife Megan Elston) of Portland, Oregon, and Erika Power of Denver; grandchildren Grady and Finnegan Elston-Power; and her brothers, Carl Swenson in New Jersey, Paul Swenson in North Carolina and Nils Swenson in Florida and their spouses, children and grandchildren. The family will hold a small, intimate celebration of life service at 10:30 a.m. July 27 at Church of the Nativity, Fair Haven.
The article originally appeared in the July 18 – 24, 2024 print edition of The Two River Times.
