Rev. Richard Skarbek, M.S.A

Visiting: Sunday (6/26) 2-4 & 7-9 PM
Mass: Monday (6/27) 10:30 AM @ Basilica of Our Lady of Perpetual Help
Cemetery: Saint John’s Cemetery (Middle Village, NY)

- - - - COMPLIMENTARY VALET PARKING AVAILABLE - - - -

In lieu of flowers please make a donation in his memory to:
Holy Apostles College & Seminary
33 Prospect Hill Road
Cromwell, CT 06416 
(860) 632-3010

OR

The Society of Missionaries of the Holy Apostles
33 Prospect Hill Road
Cromwell, CT 06416 
(860) 632-3010

Father Richard Skarbek, whose ordination in Rome in 1986 at age  54 followed several decades as director of the Our Lady of Perpetual Help Ridgemen drum and bugle corps, died on June 22 at Good Samaritan Hospital in West Islip , Long Island. He was 83 years old and had been in declining health for many years. His funeral Mass on Monday June 27 at the Basilica of Our Lady of Perpetual Help in Sunset Park was attended by family, members of  the Society of the Missionaries of the Holy Apostle congregation and a large contingent of former members of the OLPH Ridgemen drum and bugle corps. Two buglers from the Ridgemen played Taps at the end of the funeral Mass.

Father Richard was born in Brooklyn on July 2. 1932 , the son of Mary and Julian Skarbek. He graduated from Our Lady of Angels Elementary School and from St. Francis Prep in 1950. The young Skarbek then joined Manufacturers Hanover Trust Company as a Teller and was a Vice President at the bank when he left in 1980 to join the priesthood.

In the late 1940s, he joined the Our Lady of Perpetual Help Cadet Corps and soon was promoted to a leadership position in the corps. In 1955 he decided to leave the Cadet Corps and became the director of  the OLPH junior drum and bugle corps. He served in that unsalaried position until 1977 when OLPH parish could no longer support the operation of the corps. After losing parish sponsorship, The Ridgemen competed for a few years as an independent entity before disbanding. During his 22 years as director,Skarbek guided the corps from modest beginnings to become one of the finest Marching and maneuvering drum corps in the nation.

After the corps disbanded he enrolled in St. Francis College and earned his Bachelor’s degree there in 1980. He then made the decision to enter the Priesthood and earned a Master's of Divinity from Holy Apostle College and  Seminary. He continued his studies in Rome and on May 25, 1986, Father Richard was Ordained by Pope John Paul II in St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome. Pope John Paul II was elevated to sainthood several years ago. Father Skarbek returned to the United States and said his first Mass at OLPH in September  1986. He then took up his priestly duties at Holy Apostles Seminary in Connecticut where he was a teacher, spiritual advisor, finance director and fundraiser. 

He returned to Brooklyn in 2006 when former members of the OLPH Ridgemen formed an alumni association and an Ridgemen alumni drum and bugle corps. He watched as the OLPH Ridgemen marched and played once again and also received the association’s first Lifetime Achievement Award.

Father Richard’s health began to fail around 2010 and he spent the last five years of his life in an assisted living facility and finally at Our Lady of  Consolation Nursing Home in West Islip, N.Y. He is survived by 4 nieces, Noreen Kraebel, MaryAnne O'Neill, Susan Kausch and Patricia Brannigan. Another niece, Patricia Moffat, pre-deceased him.He is also survived by 10 great nieces and nephews. Father Richard’s parents and his three siblings,Irene (Skarbek) Nagle,  Florian Skarbek, and Leonora (Skarbek) Solahub,  all pre-deceased him.