With faith in Christ and hope in the Resurrection, we share the news of the repose of Archpriest Daniel Skvir (SVOTS ‘69), a respected senior clergyman of the Orthodox Church in America, who fell asleep in the Lord at his home on Sunday, March 23, 2025, after a battle with cancer. Fr Daniel had just retired as Chaplain of the Holy Transfiguration Chapel in Princeton, NJ, at the end of 2024, a position he had held for 36 years. In retirement, he continued to be attached there as Chaplain-Emeritus.
Daniel Skvir was born on April 25, 1945, in Martins Ferry, Ohio, the son of Fr John and Matushka Barbara Skvir. The young Priest John Skvir was then the pastor of Sts Cyril and Methodius Church in Bellaire, Ohio. Fr John served the Church exemplarily in many capacities over many decades. Notably, he is remembered as the only member of both the task force that negotiated the terms of autocephaly for the Orthodox Church in America (OCA) in 1970, as well as the OCA delegation that traveled to Moscow to receive the Tomos of Autocephaly.
Daniel Skvir grew up in Jersey City, New Jersey, serving as an altar boy at Sts Peter and Paul Church (now Cathedral), where his father had been assigned in 1952. After high school, he was admitted to Princeton University, where he was instrumental in establishing an Orthodox Christian Fellowship (OCF) chapter and where he wrote his AB thesis on St Philaret of Moscow, under the mentorship of Fr Georges Florovsky. After graduating from Princeton in 1966, he pursued further yearlong studies as a Rockefeller Scholar at General Theological Seminary in New York City before enrolling at St Vladimir’s Seminary in Yonkers (Crestwood), New York.
Fr Daniel and Matushka Tamara at the OCA Chancery in 2012
On June 4, 1967, Daniel Skvir married Tamara Grot Turkevich, the granddaughter of Metropolitan Leonty and the daughter of the Rev. Dr John Turkevich and Dr Ludmilla Buketoff Turkevich. Tamara’s father was a noted chemistry professor at Princeton and also a priest, who would be a member of the OCA delegation receiving the Tomos of Autocephaly in Moscow in 1970. Tamara’s mother was the first woman ever to teach at Princeton. Additionally, she was an energetic advocate and organizer of programs for church-wide ministry to seniors in the Orthodox Church in America. Daniel and Tamara would be blessed with the birth of two daughters, Nika Alexandra and Kyra Elizabeth, in the 1970s.
On December 8, 1968, Daniel Skvir was ordained to the holy diaconate by Metropolitan Ireney at his father’s parish in Jersey City. At St Vladimir’s Seminary, Dn Daniel served as President of the Student Council and was the valedictorian of the class of 1969 when he received a Bachelor of Divinity degree Magna cum Laude.
While a seminarian, Daniel Skvir served as choir director at Holy Trinity Church in East Meadow, NY. He continued in this position even after his diaconal ordination until his assignment in November 1969 to Jersey City to minister under his father and, at his own request, with Metropolitan Ireney’s blessing, to serve on alternate Sundays at Holy Transfiguration Chapel at Princeton University. After nearly two decades of service as deacon and choir director, upon his father’s repose, Protodeacon Daniel was ordained to the priesthood on September 20, 1987 by Archbishop Peter of New York and New Jersey at Sts Peter and Paul Church in Jersey City, where he would be attached until he was assigned as Chaplain of Holy Transfiguration Chapel in Princeton, effective January 1, 1989.
In addition to his various church ministries, he was a teacher and administrator at Princeton Day School for 41 years. Known as Fr Dan and the spiritual father of the school, he served in a variety of ways over the years (Director of Admissions; teacher of Russian, History and Religion; College Counselor and much more). With his wife, Matushka Tamara –affectionately known as Tassie–he took students to the Soviet Union for years, introducing many to Russian culture firsthand. He always supported his students and his own daughters in the classroom, on sports fields, and in life’s endeavors.
A music enthusiast, Fr Daniel enjoyed choir directing and was an avid arranger of music for choral singing. He was awarded the Order of Saint Romanos by the Holy Synod of Bishops in 2022 for his work as director, arranger, and collector of liturgical music. He, together with Matushka Tamara, prepared the English libretto of Rachmaninoff’s unfinished and only opera, Monna Vanna, that was orchestrated by Igor Buketoff, Matushka Tamara’s uncle. Fr Daniel and Matushka Tamara also preserved a manuscript of Russian composer Maximilian Steinberg’s Passion Week, passed on to them by Igor Buketoff–a composition that had never been performed due to religious persecution in the Soviet Union. The Skvirs made the manuscript available and were instrumental in facilitating the world premiere of this work 90 years after it was composed. They also donated a unique and valuable composite collection of diverse musical scores amassed by Igor Buketoff, Fr Constantine Buketoff (Matushka Tamara’s maternal grandfather), and Fr John Skvir (Fr Daniel’s father) to the Fr Georges Florovsky Library at St Vladimir’s Seminary.
Most of all, Fr Daniel was known for his calm, wise presence that impacted the lives of hundreds of students, parishioners, friends, and family. In recognition of his long pastoral ministry, the Holy Synod awarded Fr Daniel the privilege of wearing a miter.
Fr Daniel is survived by his beloved wife, Matushka Tamara of Pennington, NJ; daughters Nika Skvir-Maliakal (Sanjiv) of Stamford, CT and Kyra Frankel (Joshua) of Brooklyn; his sister Natalea Skvir of Edmonds, WA and brother John Skvir of Westwood, MA; as well as grandchildren Sadie and Wylie Frankel of Brooklyn, NY and Katherine and Madeline Maliakal of Stamford, Connecticut.
Services will take place at St Vladimir Orthodox Church, 812 Grand Street, Trenton, NJ 08610, and will be live-streamed on the parish’s Facebook page.
Thursday, March 27
5:00 - 7:00 p.m. Viewing
7:00 p.m. Funeral Service
Friday, March 28
9:00 - 10:00 a.m. Viewing
10:00 AM Panikhida followed by burial at St Vladimir’s (Rova Farms) Cemetery
316 Cassville Road, Jackson, NJ 08527.
In lieu of flowers, donations in memory of Fr Daniel may be sent to:
Princeton OCF/ Transfiguration Chapel Endowment Fund
PO Box 74
Pennington, NJ 08534
May Fr Daniel’s memory be eternal!
Adapted from OCA.org.
