The Des Moines Register
Des Moines, Polk County, Iowa
March 8, 2011

Maloy, Ia. — Steve SWANK answered his front door with a bottle of Windex and paper towels grasped in one hand — as if demonstrating how his unconventional home has consumed his retirement with continuous upkeep.

But then, I was a surprise guest. A couple of people had told me in recent weeks about the man who bought Maloy's former Immaculate Conception Church, shuttered since 2009, and was living in the adjoining rectory.

So there stood SWANK, 62, in a flannel shirt, khakis and white sneakers, with close-cropped hair and apologies for his unshaven face.

The church is "more of a project" than a home, he smiled, as he ushered me in for a visit. We sat in a pair of glider rocking chairs left over from the previous residents, two nuns.

SWANK grew up here in Ringgold County, where about 40 acres of his parents' old farmstead remain in the family. But he and his second wife, Sue, opted to buy this church in June 2009 for $69,500 and relocate from the bustle and drizzle of Portland, Ore.

SWANK'S mother, 13 first cousins and numerous other relatives still live in the area, most within a 30-mile radius except for a brother in southern Missouri.

Yes, SWANK is the father of actress Hilary SWANK, the winner of a pair of Best Actress Oscars for 1999's "Boys Don't Cry" and 2004's "Million Dollar Baby." His son, Dan, lives north of Seattle and installs communications systems atop cell phone towers.

SWANK hadn't lived in Iowa in nearly 40 years. He retired in 2000 from the Air Force as a senior master sergeant in charge of recruitment and retention. Hilary was born in Lincoln, Neb., where Swank earned a business administration degree from the University of Nebraska.

As a return to Midwestern roots goes, Maloy is about as far away from the Hollywood Walk of Fame as it gets.

"During the day it's kind of a ghost town — a ghostly ghost town, since there's not many ghosts to start with," SWANK said. When not fixing things, he studies and reflects. He labeled himself a "strong Christian" who regularly attends the Assembly of God in Mount Ayr on Sundays. A copy of the A.W. TOZER book, "God's Pursuit of Man," rested on a nearby footstool.

This rebuilt church opened in 1932 after a fire gutted the place the previous year. The church is to Maloy and its 29 residents sort of what 801 Grand is to Des Moines: the architectural signature of its "downtown" skyline.

SWANK has invested heavily in refurbishing the two-story rectory, transforming the five-bedroom space into a home with an office, master bedroom, enclosed sun porch, etc. Despite a meager fix-it resume, SWANK steadily has become painter, carpenter, electrician, plumber - between long drives to Des Moines or St. Joseph, Mo., for supplies.

Yet the 3,000-square-foot sanctuary, with sturdy wood beams rising to a peak, looks much the same as it did during its last Mass in May 2009. Twenty-six pews on the main floor are surrounded by the paintings of the 14 Stations of the Cross that hang on the walls. They've been joined by extra lumber that leans in the wings of the altar, with an old bicycle and rocking chairs nearby.

SWANK flirted with converting his old church into some sort of rural Iowa destination. A wedding chapel? A bed-and-breakfast inn?

But Maloy's abundant serenity eschews lucrative business models.

Neighbor and former Mayor Don RAY, for instance, stages concerts and other events on "an irregular basis" in his 1930s-vintage Foxtown Music Hall just across the street from SWANK.

"We're pretty thin for population, so if you invite all the musicians you know and two of 'em don't show up, you don't have anybody to play with," quipped RAY, who teaches Spanish at the high school in Mount Ayr.

SWANK'S wife, Sue, hasn't even been in Maloy since last summer. She's been tending to her sick mother in California while also visiting her own specialists to thwart allergies that flared up in the Iowa climate. Hilary and Dan have yet to visit their father's Maloy home - the crippling snowstorm of Dec. 24, 2009, canceled a planned SWANK family Christmas in Iowa.

So SWANK says that now he's probably ready to sell the church and trade his childhood landscape for a bit more West Coast bustle.

If serenity is the main thing going in Maloy, perhaps this is somebody's spiritual retreat waiting to be born?

"What we need is a preacher with a big family looking for a church," SWANK said.

I couldn't help take the historic church off his hands as The Register's Maloy bureau. But as I left I told SWANK I'd try to let him know the next time I was passing through. Maybe I could pick up a few supplies at Lowe's or Home Depot.

Transcription by Sharon R. Becker, March of 2011