Marleen Swerdlow had a plan: graduate from law school, move away from home and build her career at a prestigious law firm. But for this College of Business professor, she says landing at Lamar University was nothing short of fate.
Just out of law school, the Tyler native found herself in Beaumont working a one-year clerkship that eventually turned into two. During her second year, she met her late husband, Robert Swerdlow, a marketing professor in LU’s College of Business. Three years after the pair married, Swerdlow joined Robert at the university teaching business law.
“After I graduated from law school, I would have never thought that I would be teaching at a university,” she said. “It’s funny how things work out.”
Between them both, Swerdlow says that they’ve likely taught thousands of students, but there’s one student in particular who stands out above the rest—Todd Hoffman. Hoffman graduated from LU in 1988 with his B.B.A. in accounting and is a partner and consultant for Guidehouse.
During his undergrad study, Hoffman took his first marketing class with Robert and a few business law classes with Swerdlow. Over time, the pair became mentors and role models for Hoffman, even after he had graduated from the university.
“They were my professors, but they were also my mentors, and we became really great friends during the last 30 plus years,” Hoffman said. “When I struggled with making decisions on jobs, career changes and just things in life, those were the two people that I called.”
After Robert’s untimely passing in 2003, Swerdlow and her son Matthew endowed the Dr. Robert A. Swerdlow Memorial Scholarship in Marketing in his honor. “Robert was interim dean several times in the College of Business, and he loved LU, so it was just natural that we would direct money to the university.”
In 2017, Hoffman and his wife, Jennifer endowed the Todd and Jennifer Hoffman Scholarship in Business in honor of Robert and Marleen Swerdlow. “I’m simply honoring and celebrating what they’ve done to help me,” Hoffman said. “They were very impactful in my life and through our scholarship, I want to give that same mentorship that was given to me.”
During her tenure, Swerdlow has continued to be a mentor and advisor for her students. She’s served on 135 university committees to date and been named director of both the campus General Business Program and the B.B.A. online business program. Now known for her massive cardinal figurine collection in her office and often regarded as “the lady in red” by students, Swerdlow reflects on her 35-year career at the university.
“You know, I don’t do the things that I do for plaques or for awards because that’s not the point of it,” she said. “You’ve got to have a reason to get up in the morning. Lamar University is that reason, and coming here to help the students is really my main purpose.”
