Title:Lives Well Lived

Lives Well Lived honors alumni, faculty, and staff who have recently passed away. We share with you these portraits of people who have made an indelible impact living day to day as people for others. Memories collected by Patti North.

You can find a more complete list at alumni.georgetown.edu/in-memoriam.

Peter Neil Clare (L’88)

Peter Neil Clare passed away on May 16, 2025, in Washington, DC. He was born on August 20, 1964, in Jamaica, West Indies. While he was still a child, his family moved to Long Island, New York. Peter attended the University of Pennsylvania, earning a B.A. in history in 1985. He followed his undergraduate studies at Georgetown University Law Center, earning his J.D. in 1988.

Peter dedicated his early career to affordable housing development in East-of-the-River DC. He rose to vice president of ARCH Development Corporation, leaving in 1994 to become executive director of East of the River Community Development Corporation. In 1996 Peter was named president of the Coalition of Non-Profit Housing Developers. Peter was also an adjunct professor of housing law at Georgetown University Law Center and Howard Law School, as well as a consultant to DC housing redevelopment projects.

Peter was a Renaissance man, having co-founded 8ROCK Cultural Arts Organization in the mid-1990s and serving as a commissioner on the DC Commission for the Arts and Humanities from 1997 to 1999. In 2007, he started College Tribe, a nonprofit mentoring program for Black boys with a focus on STREAM (Science, Technology, Reading, Engineering, Art, and Math) education, to support and develop future Renaissance men.

He is survived by his partner Michelle Bonner and son Zac Clare. As fellow Hoya Fr. Raymond Kemp said of Peter, “Each of us needs to recall what Peter would have us do—exactly what he was trying to do: make a way for those who need a way to thrive, not just to survive. To develop each and every of their God-given talents.”

Jennifer Lyon (M’93)

Jennifer Hwei-Ming Lyon (formerly Skillman, née Kok) passed away on June 19, 2025, in Portland, Oregon. Born on June 29, 1968, in Kuching, Malaysia, Jenny graduated from Wellesley College in 1989 and went on to earn her medical degree from Georgetown School of Medicine in 1993, where she was elected senior class president. She completed her pediatric residency at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) and served as chief resident in her final year.

As a child, she was inspired to pursue medicine by her late father, Daniel Kok, a family physician practicing on the island of Borneo. Jenny was diagnosed with insulin-dependent diabetes in her teens, which further deepened her passion to help others, as she understood the patient’s perspective.

Becoming a pediatrician combined her love of children with the joy of healing. While living with several chronic illnesses and undergoing multiple organ transplants, Jenny researched and sought the best care to manage her medical conditions.

She was devoted to her faith and found strong church communities in every city she called home—from her early years in Palo Alto to her time on the east coast, in San Francisco, and in New Mexico. Her sister, Cindy Hinman, said “Jenny pursued a life of compassion and purpose.”

She is survived by her daughter, Sarah Skillman; mother, Elizabeth Kok; sister, Cindy (Adrian) Hinman; and Bob and Cathy Kennedy, her uncle and aunt. The family asks that memorial gifts be directed to Habitat for Humanity, an organization near and dear to Jenny’s heart.

Ricardo Ortiz

Ricardo Ortiz, an English and American Studies professor who taught at Georgetown for more than 25 years, passed away on Aug. 18, 2025, after a heart attack. He was 63.

Born in Cuba, Ricardo emigrated to Los Angeles with his family in 1966. He received his undergraduate degree in English and economics from Stanford University in 1983, master’s in 1987, and doctoral degree in English in 1992 from the University of California, Los Angeles. He taught at San Jose State University and Dartmouth College before joining Georgetown’s faculty in 1998. He served as chair of the English department from 2015 to 2021, then as director of the Master of Arts Program in Engaged and Public Humanities from 2022 until his passing.

Known almost as much for his infectious laugh as his scholarly achievements, Ricardo was also a sponsor and advocate for programs serving students, including the Georgetown Scholarship Program, the Black House Diversity Initiative, and the LGBTQ Resource Center. It was his advocacy, in part, that led to the establishment of the Center—the first in the nation at a Catholic university.

About Ricardo’s advocacy, Shiva Subbaraman, the LGBTQ Center’s first director remembered, “He said the LGBTQ Center gave us the chance at a Catholic school to reimagine our possibilities; that our lives are not simply about coming out, but a coming together of all of that we are called to be; of who we can be; and of who we can become. And he saw us in the fullness of our work in Student Life the way few do.”

Paul O’Neill (C’86, G’96), Ricardo’s fiancé, attributed his love for education to the transformative power it had on his own life, “He saw in students his 18-year-old self, and he wanted them to experience the flourishing that he experienced as an undergraduate. Kids who were immigrants, kids of color, and kids who were queer—he wanted to make sure that their experience in his classroom was an equalizing experience.”

In recent years, Ricardo worked as an advocate for public humanities scholarship and teaching. He helped establish, and then directed, Georgetown’s MA in Engaged and Public Humanities. Nicoletta Pireddu, director of the Georgetown Humanities Initiative recalled, “Ricardo was the first person I would seek out to share the excitement of what Georgetown Humanities was beginning to build, to test half-formed plans, and to brainstorm new ideas. He met every one of them with that distinctive ability to make others feel seen, heard, and capable of more.”

Ricardo published two books in Latinx studies and more than 40 other academic works in the humanities. He was working on a book about Cuban Paris when he died.

He is survived by his fiancé, Paul O’Neill; sisters, Ana Mercedes and Ana Rosa; and nephews, Colin, Andrew, and Daniel. Georgetown has established the Ricardo L. Ortiz Endowed Humanities Fund to honor his memory and support the work to which he dedicated his life.

“We would not be the university we are today without Ricardo Ortiz—and I am confident his legacy will continue to shape this institution for years to come,” Interim President Robert Groves said at the memorial service. “How fortunate we have been to share this community with him for 27 years.”