Walter M. Swietlik was born in Milwaukee in 1892, the son of Polish immigrants. Swietlik graduated from North Division High School in Milwaukee in 1911. He attended Marquette University for a few years before transferring to the University of Wisconsin, where he received a civil engineering degree in 1916. In 1917 he enlisted in the United States Army, became a second lieutenant, and was assigned to the Coast Artillery. He was honorably discharged in 1919 after serving in France. In 1940, Mayor Carl Zeidler appointed Swietlik as Milwaukee's commissioner of Public Works, a position Swietlik held until his retirement in 1956. Swietlik was an active member of the American Public Works Association and in 1962 received the Henry S. Swearingen Award for service to the association. Swietlik died in November 1981.
