On the trip, Swope expressed that he would consider moving to a kibbutz "if he didn't love New York so much." He was a long-time sponsor of the American Technion Society, which supported Technion University in Haifa.

He died in New York City on November 20, 1957. In 2005, Forbes Magazine ranked Swope as the 20th most influential businessman of all time.

In 1962, his family donated 245 acres of land in Westchester County, New York, to the Brooklyn Botanic Garden. That land promptly became the Teatown Lake Reservation, a nonprofit nature preserve and environmental education center that has since grown to more than 1,000 acres of land.

Swope Plan In September 1931, Swope presented a proposal for recovery. Under the Swope Plan, the Federal Trade Commission would supervise trade associations established for each industry. Trade associations would cover every company with at least 50 employees after three years. Associations would regulate output and set prices. Workers would receive life insurance, pensions, and unemployment insurance paid for in part by employers. The Chamber of Commerce and other conservative groups provided enthusiastic support.

President Herbert Hoover, who strongly supported voluntary trade associations, denounced the plan for being compulsory, inefficient, and monopolistic.

In an oral history interview, Leon H. Keyserling said the New Deal's National Industrial Recovery Act "started as a trade association act. The original draft of the act grew out of the so-called Gerard Swope Plan for Recovery." When asked in November 1933 about an updated Swope Plan, President Roosevelt said, "Mr. Swope's plan is a very interesting theoretical suggestion in regard to some ultimate development of N.R.A."