Daniel J. Skvir (1945-2025)

 

Father Daniel J. Skvir passed away at his Pennington, NJ home on March 24, surrounded by his loving family. Dan's Legacy.com obituary is here. The Orthodox Church in America posted this tribute to Dan.

 

Dan came to Princeton from Jersey City, NJ and Ferris HS. A religion major, he joined Campus Club and played clarinet in the marching band. Junior year, Dan met Tassie, a Critical Languages student and the daughter of Chemistry professor John Turkevich, and they married in 1967. Studies at Union Theological Seminary and St. Vladimir's Seminary followed and then came a long career with Princeton Day School. Dan was also a well-respected senior clergyman of the Orthodox Church in America and Chaplain of Holy Transfiguration Chapel in Princeton.

 

Dan, along with Jim Parmentier, Tim Smith, and Steve Harwood, organized and created a beautiful virtual memorial service for our 55th reunion to share memories of Princeton and classmates no longer with us. Here is the link to the SoR video (watch again - it's excellent and moving) with Dan officiating and appearing at 3:23, 12:23, and 34:10. Click here for the SoR program, which includes list of deceased classmates and the text of Andrew Littauer's Beneath the Ashes, Elms, and Oaks as read at the service.

 

 

After this brief sketch of Dan's distinguished life, family, and career, there is much more to be found in the classmate tributes below and in the two obituaries posted above.

Nassau Herald

40th Reunion

Masked Men

 

Memories, Tributes, and Pictures

James Bartholomew

Junior year I roomed in the same entryway in Little Hall below Chuck Peischl and Dan Skvir. Senior year I lived across the second floor of the same entry with Chuck and Dan and Paul Corcoran and Bruce Leslie. We were very close friends.

 
Like Dan, I was a Religion major, but with a bridge to the Philosophy Department. In the junior year Dan started dating Tass Turkevich, who was one of the eight, female critical language students to populate all-male Princeton prior to it going co-ed. We were all taken by Tass, but she was already taken by Dan. I had the privilege of meeting Dan’s family in Jersey City and attending the wedding of Dan and Tass. They were a striking couple.
 
I kept in touch with them over the years, sometimes at their home in Princeton while attending reunions and with cards over Christmas. I particularly remember attending a memorial service conducted by Dan at the Chapel at our 50th reunion. I was so impressed. His message was so mature, thoughtful, and touching. He had followed in the footsteps of his father, but had gone much further than that.  He was a true gentleman and very caring person. He was blessed and so are we who were privileged to know him. 

 

Chuck Kulczycki

Dan was in the Princeton Band clarinet section with other '66ers-- Dave Beck, Dave Bonnett, Larry Eron and me for 4 years.  Larry and I were good friends and roommates for one summer and senior year.  The other clarinetists were my friends because we shared adventures and two rehearsals and one football game each week (and a bus trip for an away game every other week) in the fall for 4 years-- so we got to know each other pretty well. We took turns playing in pep bands at basketball games in the winter and spring.  I did not see Dan much in classes or socially since he was a Religion major and Dan was in Campus  Club and senior year Dan spent most of his free time with Tamara ("Tossie" pronounced "Tahssie"). Judy and I enjoyed spending time with Dan and "Tahssie" at a '66 Tiger Band reunion party that took place during our 50th reunion.

 

Chuck Peischl

Dan and I first met our sophomore year when we were clarinetists in the Tiger marching band. We quickly became close friends and ultimately decided to be junior year roommates with Fred Hartmann. When we were moving into our second floor Little Hall suite, we learned that Fred had married his lovely Sally during the summer. Those were the days when students could not be married and live off campus without University permission. Fred was granted that permission, and Dan and I became the occupants of a two-bedroom and living room suite. What a great arrangement!
 
Dan and I furnished our quarters with hand-me-downs from our families. I contributed a bar which we painted black; Dan had a refrigerator that we naturally painted black and applied Princeton stickers.  We were especially pleased to have a fireplace which we would light to impress dates - at least until smoke filled the room.
 
During our junior year, Dan began dating Tamara Turkevich, daughter of Princeton chemistry professor and member of the Manhattan Project team, John Turkevich. Tass and her family invited Dan and me to their home for dinners and social occasions. These were always festive and special events, one or two of which included Nobel laureates. Heady stuff for Princeton undergraduates!
 
For some unknown reason, Dan decided he wanted to learn to smoke. Instead of trying cigarettes, he chose slim cigars that were about the size of a cigarette. Being a non-smoker, I decided to see how long this adventure would last. Not long! An upper respiratory event shut him down.
 
Dan and I had a terrific rapport and friendship, and we stayed in our Little Hall suite our senior year. In an earlier email, Jim Bartholomew explained the rooming arrangement that Jim, Bruce Leslie, Paul Corcoran, Dan, and I shared. Other than the normal life of college seniors and the angst over senior theses, graduate school, and life after Princeton, the focus of Dan’s senior year was his engagement to Tass and their planned wedding after graduation.
 
Dan and Tass’ wedding was held early in the summer of 1966. The wedding was held at the Jersey City Russian Orthodox Church where Dan’s father, Father John, was the pastor. There was a reception at the church, after which we headed to Princeton for a lovely reception at the Princeton Inn.
 
Dan, Tass, Gwen, and I stayed close as dear friends after graduation and had memorable meals and reunions on many occasions. When Gwen and I were married at the 18th century Moravian chapel in Bethlehem, PA, on December 23, 1967, Dan was my best man. Jim Bartholomew, Paul Corcoran, and Dave Harwi were also part of the wedding party. Dan and Tass had deduced that we would be spending our wedding night at the Nassau Inn; rather than interrupt our evening, they delivered a bottle of champagne outside our room.
 
As the intervening years passed and our families grew and life became increasingly busy, our times together became less. However, whenever we saw each other, whether in Princeton or elsewhere, our friendship simply picked up as though there had been no interruption.
 
There were a number of times when Dan or I would pick up the phone and call each other to check up on each other and our families. Occasionally, Dan and Tass would stop at my law office in Nazareth as they headed home to Princeton after visiting Dan’s family in PA; those were always precious times for close friends to reconnect briefly.
 
We have all seen the number of our classmates who have passed and who will continue to do so at a more rapid pace. I grieve that Dan is now part of the “in memoriam” category. Like the rest of you, I know that my life has been enriched because of our dear friend, Dan.

 

Isaac Hall:

Dan and I may have travelled some of the same academic paths – first the Princeton Religion Department (the Religion/Philosophy bridge - for my part - under the tutelage of never to be forgotten by me, Prof. Malcolm Diamond) and then on to Union Theological Seminary (which was still heavily influenced by the teachings of Paul Tillich and Reinhold Niebuhr when these teachings were dearly needed as the civil rights movement made its mark and we became engulfed in the Vietnam War.) Unfortunately, I cannot say that during these periods of time I got to know Dan very well. That is my great loss. Dan reminds me of the men of the cloth who have made unique contributions to the world we live in. As they did during the time we were at Union Seminary. As we need them, and many others, again now. To a religious life well-lived.

Bruce Leslie:

Attending Father Dan’s funeral in St. Vladimir’s Russian Orthodox Church in Trenton reminded me that he had introduced me to the rich Orthodox heritage. As an Episcopalian I thought I knew a little about “smells and bells”, but we have nothing to compare with Orthodoxy.
 
I had been lucky to be pulled into a senior year rooming group consisting of Dan, Chuck Peischl, Jim Bartholomew, Paul Corcoran and myself. We were drawn together by our connections with the Tiger Band, which was having nearly as good years as our football team. As a bonus, Dan was attached to one of the “Critters”, his future wife Tassie Turkevich. We were all serious students who managed to balance the pressures of the senior thesis with many good times and three relationships leading to marriage.
 
While Dan was a fanatical American sports fan, he also carried a culture that was new to me, the Russian Orthodox Church. Tassie and Dan’s wedding in Saints Peter and Paul Orthodox Cathedral in Jersey City was conducted with an ornate splendor and pomp such as I’d never seen before.
 
Years later Dan and I realized we had a surprising connection. In the early 1900s my maternal grandparents’ German Reformed church had sold its building to the Russian Orthodox Church in Jersey City. It then housed the congregation that Dan’s father presided over during our Princeton years!
 
Dan and I only had occasional interactions in later years, but one occasion stands out. I had wandered over to campus after a football game victory celebrated in the re-constituted Dial/Elm/Cannon Club. A craving for some peace and quiet led me to wander into the Chapel and down toward the side chapel where Rev. Rowland Cox had held our Episcopal services. To my surprise smells and bells were wafting out and there was an elegantly robed priest about to begin the weekly service – it was Dan in all his splendor!!!

 

David Bonnett:

I remember Dan Skvir playing clarinet freshman and sophomore years.

 
I remember Dan being quite religious, and pretty quiet. I was surprised to see in the yearbook that he was quite a socialite, dating one of the critical language undergrads, who Dave Beck enlightened me was Professor Turkevich's daughter. I knew Dave also from Air Force ROTC freshman and sophomore years. 
 
I had the impression that Dan became a Greek Orthodox minister, but it looks like he was more Russian Orthodox. Internet research indicates he and Turkevich established a generalized Orthodox Christian Fellowship at Princeton. It looks like he had a successful and rewarding career in secondary education and was able to combine that with significant contributions to music.
 

He made Princeton such a central part of his life, but I don't remember seeing him at reunions.

 

Paul Corcoran:

Through the years, I’ve felt very close to Dan and Tassie. I was among the wedding celebrants at their wedding in Jersey City, holding the diadem over the head of a maid of honour as we circled the bride and groom. Memorable, beautiful and full of meaning. 
 
Each major reunion, they would host all of us roommates and a few other friends from the class, especially Dave Beck and his wife, for an evening at their home in Princeton, which of course had been The Turkevich family home. I believe the first photo below was taken on one of those nights.
 

How many valuable memories we have. But in the days before nonstop iPhone photography, we have so few pictures, and even those few are of such poor quality! 

 

Below: Paul (left), Dan (rignt) and families from a time long ago. 

 

David Beck

It is easy to write about Dan Skvir, but hard to find memories that many others in Dan’s very large orbit do not also share and have written about. He was a true gentleman who cared about all whom he met. My connections were social and musical: through the marching band I got to know Dan, Dan’s Princeton roommates, and especially through Dan, Tass.
 
I guess I always thought of Dan and Tass as a single unit, and one of my enduring memories of Princeton and my first of Tass was when Dan was going to see Tass at her parents’ house one day, Dan took me along. There by extraordinary happenstance I met several world-renowned scientists who were visiting. Heady stuff for a young biochem major at Princeton. Dan and Tass taught together, cooked together, translated together, and were always a couple for whom we had the highest respect. I have a very fond memory of sitting with Dan and Tass in their living room reading through the Rachmaninoff libretto they were working on.
 
Dan and Tass enjoyed wine and visited our vineyard in Oregon a number of times. On a visit in 2011, we happened to be in the middle of harvest, and Dan got up very early (harvest typically started around 5 AM), put on his collar, and, while the harvest crew members bowed their heads, Dan blessed the harvest. That was a lovely vintage! On that same visit, Dan helped chase birds, shotgun in hand.
 

At the 50th reunion for the Class of ‘66, before the Friday night dinner, Dan and Tass held a tasting of our wine at their Princeton home. About a 100 classmates showed up. What a great way to start a 50th reunion weekend. The Marching Band is another connection, worthy of its own story. I was a clarinetist and drill master of the band in the ’64 and ’65 football seasons, and Dan played beside me. I do not recall whether Dan also played in the Concert band but he may well have. Although Dan was a soft-spoken gentleman, he did not shrink from enjoying the bawdy scripts we wrote on Thursday evenings for the Saturday halftime show.

 

Charles Plohn:

Photo (by Dorothy Plohn) of James Bartholomew and Charles Plohn on March 27th in front of St. Vladimir Orthodox Church in Trenton, where they attended the Visitation. Walter and Mary Bliss arrived later at the church and attended the Funeral Service. Bruce Leslie attended the Panahida Service at the church on the morning of the 28th.

 

If you have photos or memories that you wish to share, please send them to the '66 Memorial Team (66_MemorialTeam@tiger1966.org). We will add them to this page.