Pitzer College is making plans to celebrate the life of Hiliary Green PZ ’14. Green, who died last month at age 22, is remembered for her compassion and creativity.
Green’s family held a memorial ceremony in her hometown of Denver, Colo., Sept. 14. which Vice President of Student Affairs at Pitzer Brian Carlisle attended.
“Several hundreds of people attended the ceremony,” Carlisle said. “A term that was used often to describe her at the ceremony was ‘radiant.’ Her friends and family said at the ceremony that whenever they were going through struggles, Hiliary knew how to make their days that much better.”
Carlisle, who began his career at Pitzer over the summer, added, “I really wish I would’ve had the opportunity to meet Hiliary. She sounded like a pretty remarkable person.”
“Hiliary was warm, fearless, and endlessly curious,” wrote Morgan Parker-Klimpel PZ ’13, a close friend of Green’s, in an e-mail to TSL.
Green attended East High School in Denver but spent her junior year of high school in Ghana, according to the Denver Post.
Parker-Klimpel said she and Green met on their Pitzer first-year orientation surf trip.
“It was friendship at first sight,” she wrote.
“Hiliary loved anything creative, especially poetry and playing her ukulele,” Parker-Klimpel wrote. “She also loved interacting with others and learning about culture.”
She wrote that Green was majoring in psychology, and hoped to be a speech pathologist.
Annie Brown PZ ’14, also a close friend of Green’s, described her as bright, funny, and welcoming.
“Hiliary was an incredible friend and a fighter,” she said. “Her smile would automatically make you smile.”
A committee of faculty, staff, and students is organizing an on-campus ceremony commemorating Green’s life that will take place on a Saturday this semester. The dates are being discussed by the committee and Green’s family to ensure that family members will be able to attend.
Many of Green’s friends are part of the committee, including Parker-Klimpel and Brown.
“It will be a happy celebration of her life with time for students to share memories,” Parker-Klimpel wrote.
More information on the ceremony will be released via e-mail to the 5Cs.
Green is survived by parents Carol and Ben Green, and sisters Zoe Green and Katherine Fischer.