From Judy Bentley ’67: Danica died March 10, 2023. She started with my class at Oberlin ('67), graduated in '68, and was known especially to theater people in other classes.
From Danica's son, Ben: Danica Miller Eskind died peacefully on March 10, 2023, at her home in Rochester, New York. She was 77 years old.
Danica was born in Meadville, Pennsylvania on May 15, 1945 to Franklin Moore Miller and Dorothy Marie Bennen Miller. As a child, she adored playing with her older brother Lohring, and was fortunate to have extended family and close friends enrich her early years in Meadville. She spent summer days sailing on Conneaut Lake and weekends “overflowed with company.”
Danica attended high school at Abbott Academy in Andover, Massachusetts. As a skilled costume and clothing designer, she recalled every detail of the Abbott formal attire, a “royal blue velvet dress with flared skirt and a boat neck that rolled over to reveal a blue satin lining. A blue enamel circle pin with two embedded rhinestones graced that neckline.” There, she met lifelong friends and teachers, including her cherished piano teacher, Miss Chang.
Despite a family legacy at Allegheny College, after graduating from Abbott in 1963, Danica enrolled at Oberlin College. At Oberlin, Danica was active in extracurricular theater and costume design, working with Oberlin's Gilbert & Sullivan Players on Cape Cod. After graduating with a degree in Art History in 1968, she dared to pursue her creative interests professionally.
Danica worked at the Museum of the City of New York, as a milliner at the Guthrie Theater in Minneapolis, and in costume design for theaters in Washington, DC and Rochester, NY. She and her husband Andrew Eskind 
settled in Rochester, where she worked at Geva Theater, leaving to launch DANICA, her own brand of apparel with textiles from photosensitive dyes.
After the birth of her son Benjamin, Danica completed a master’s degree at Rochester Institute of Technology in computer graphic design and applied her design skills at Kodak.com, the University of Rochester, and as a freelancer. Danica applied her tenacity and creativity to two community arts projects in downtown Rochester in the early 1990s – the Window Project and Montage ‘93. She volunteered in the school district as a tutor and was committed to learning through and with her community.
Danica was an exceptional friend, admired for her wit, generosity of spirit, and enduring relationships. She will be missed by the community of friends who supported and cared for her through her final years with multiple myeloma.
She is survived by her son, Benjamin Eskind; her former husband, Andrew Eskind; her brother, Lohring Miller; and numerous nieces, nephews, and cousins. A memorial service will be held at the Unitarian Church on Winton Rd, in Rochester on May 20. Exact time TBD, but hopefully in the afternoon to allow for travel time.
Ann Young (1967)
A lovely person. I really enjoyed getting to know her better at our 50th reunion, and had seen her since that time. So sad to lose her so quickly thereafter.