Well, Humphrey's dad was Robert Swift, who founded the company (originally known as Anderson & Swift) in 1926, with the named partner. They began importing binos from Germany under their name. Eventually, the partnership dissolved and Swift Optics was formed. Soon after WW2 (not sure exactly when), microscopes and weather instruments were added to the line, and Swift began to import items from Occupied Japan, which is the case today. After Robert's passing, Humphrey (Hop) took over and expanded the lines and really made Swift a respectable name in optics, maybe not to the level of B&L or Zeiss, but no where near their price levels, either. Hop left us last year and his daughter has now taken over the reins of management. First thing she did was move the HQ of the company from Boston to San Jose (where the microscope division already was). New products have been coming and I really haven't noticed the alluded-to decline in quality mentioned above. The Audubons and Ultralites, to my eyeballs, are really fine glasses, and almost unbeatable at their price points. Yours truly, spyglass
