Dr. Horace Barton McSwain, a native of Paris, Tennessee, was the third of four generations of McSwains to graduate from Vanderbilt Medical School. He served his internship and residency at Vanderbilt, Cornell, Johns Hopkins, and New York University hospitals and later operated a private practice in Paris for seven years.

Following private practice, McSwain served during World War II as a lieutenant commander with the U.S. Navy in the Pacific Theater from 1944-1946. He then joined the surgery and surgical pathology faculty at his alma mater. McSwain was the first recepient of the Shovel Award for best lecturer of the year.

Following retirement in 1971, the professor emeritus joined the staff of Nashville Memorial Hospital as associate pathologist. In 1979 he joined Nashville Pathology Associates. McSwain passed away in 1981.