Geoffrey Swaebe; Was May Co. Executive and U.S. Ambassador

Geoffrey Swaebe, onetime head of May Co. Department Stores of California and a former U.S. ambassador to Belgium, has died. He was 85.

Swaebe died Tuesday in Century City Hospital in Los Angeles after a long illness, said his son, Geoffrey Swaebe Jr.

In 1981, Swaebe was named U.S. permanent representative to the United Nations in Geneva by President Ronald Reagan. Two years later, Reagan appointed him ambassador to Belgium, a post he held until 1988. During his tenure, Swaebe worked for acceptance of the deployment of American Cruise missiles on Belgian soil as a part of NATO strategy.

Born in London, Swaebe came to the United States at age 12. He served in the U.S. Army during World War II.

During his long business career, he was an executive at several national retail firms including Talheimers of Richmond, Va., the Florsheim Shoe Co. and I. Miller & Sons of Chicago, and Abercrombie & Fitch of New York.

He was general manager of the Hecht Co. in Baltimore from 1950 to 1962 and then spent 10 years as president and chairman of the board of the former May Co. department stores in Los Angeles.

Also involved in community affairs in Southern California, Swaebe was on the board of the Los Angeles Community Redevelopment Agency and the Los Angeles Better Business Bureau and was active in the Hollywood Bowl Symphony Assn.

In addition to his son, who lives in New York, Swaebe is survived by his wife, Mary.