Irina Swift's Obituary
Irina K Swift, passed away from cancer on December 18, 2024 in Silver Spring MD at the age of 82.
Irina was born in Berlin in 1942 to Tamara and George Kodzaspiroff of Moscow and Mariupol, respectively. Tamara had been at boarding school in Kiev when the Russian revolution began and she never saw her family again or ever returned to Russia. George evacuated out of Sevastopol during the civil war that followed the revolution. They met in Bulgaria and married in Prague. George worked in forestry there and was relocated with Tamara to Berlin when the Germans took Czechoslovakia. Later, as Germany fell to the allies, Irina and her parents fled west toward the British and American armies. Irina often told the story of how when her parents grabbed essential items as they prepared for what was to be a 200-km walk from Berlin, little 3-year old Irina contributed by grabbing a matchbox to stash in her pocket.
Irina and her parents spent years in refugee camps on the Rhine River until they were sponsored to live on a farm in Missouri. Later the family settled in Queens, New York.
After graduating college in New York, she got a government job in Washington DC, in part due to her Russian language skills. She later worked for the US Customs Service in cargo clearance, starting in San Francisco in the late 1960s and then moving to Anchorage, Alaska. In Alaska, she met and married a fellow Customs officer, becoming a stepmom to three girls. Irina then became a mom to a son and a daughter and then returned to Customs, moving for work to Reno, New Orleans, Seattle, and finally Washington DC, her favorite US city.
After retiring from the US Customs Service, she became a consultant on Customs and international trade issues. In this work, she traveled to many parts of the world, including Sao Tome, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Uganda, Central America, Sri Lanka, Yemen and Afghanistan. She also traveled to Ukraine, both for work, arriving right after the collapse of the Soviet Union, and then again to see her daughter in 2004 who was a Peace Corps volunteer in Crimea
Irina loved her work but was as times the only woman in her workplace, both when starting out in the US Customs service in the 1960s and then later in her overseas work. Her son described her as a trailblazer and her daughter said she was "dauntless, inquisitive and generous."
Irina moved up to Silver Spring from Florida in the Fall of 2021 to be near her children and grandchildren, and she continued her travels. She visited Cuba, a trip she always wanted to make, as well as Iceland with her daughter and then 5-year old grandson in 2023. Irina was able to see her eldest grandson begin college in PA, her 15-year old granddaughter thrive in high-school, and her youngest grandchild grow old enough to get a sense of the person he will become.
Irina passed peacefully at home. Her children and daughter-in-law were with her and a few hours earlier her son-in-law and little grandson had stopped by for a chat.
The family and some friends gathered for her burial in Annapolis on December 23. It was a green burial, consistent with her wishes. She will be dearly missed.
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