Richard J. “Dick” Sweetnam, Sr, 80, husband of Evelyn Sweetnam, died July 29 at his home of 43 years in Westport, surrounded by his family. He was born April 3, 1935, in Brooklyn, N.Y.

In addition to his wife, his daughter, Susan Asetta, and her husband Richard, of Newtown; sons Richard, and his wife Linda, of Boulder, Colo., and Robert of Westport; grandsons Charles and Kenneth; his brother William, and his family, of Freehold, N.J., survive Mr Sweetnam. A son, Kenneth, predeceased him in 1984. 

He graduated from St Augustine High School in 1953, and Fordham University, with a BS, in 1958. During his final year of undergraduate school, he was elected president of the Student Council for the Downtown School of Business. He attended Fordham Law School, from which he graduated in 1965, and retired as a member of the Connecticut and New York state and federal bars.

Mr Sweetnam and his family moved to Westport in 1972 from Huntsville, Ala., where he had been counsel at IBM’s Space Systems Center. At the time of his retirement in 1992, after 33 years of service with IBM, he was corporate counsel-litigation.  He then became of counsel in the Stamford office of Paul, Hastings, Janofsky & Walker, an international law firm headquartered in Los Angeles, retiring from that position in 1995.

Mr Sweetnam was a member of St Luke Catholic Church in Westport.

A Mass of Christian Burial took place August 3.

Memorial donations may be made to the Kenneth G. Sweetnam Memorial Scholarship, Providence College, Providence RI 02819-0001 or Kenneth Sweetnam Memorial Award, Staples High School, Westport CT 06881-5159.

To leave an on line condolence visit www.hardingfuneral.com.