A tribute to our friend and board member Chris Eyre

It’s with a heavy heart that we share the news that in December, we lost a beloved Global Citizen Year Board Member Chris Eyre. His cancer diagnosis came as a shock but we at GCY had the immense privilege of knowing Chris and his many gifts. We are heartbroken and his loss is deeply felt.

Chris served on the board from 2017 to 2023 where he played myriad leadership roles. Elikem Tomety Archer, Chief Program Officer at GCY remembers most about Chris “that he always saw the humanity in people. No matter how people showed up and what challenges we were facing – he focused on the innate goodness in all of us.  As a member of the Program & Risk Committee for the past 7 years and the chair in the last 2, he was a mentor who believed in me, supported me, and always encouraged me. I will miss his wisdom and sense of humor.”

 

Former GCY board chair, Nathan (Than) Healy, says he could talk and write for hours about Chris. “Wisdom. Kindness. Grace. That was Chris Eyre. With a twinkle in his eye at all times as he helped GCY through all aspects of its extraordinary growth over the last few years not to mention navigating a global pandemic that required a pivot for the ages, Chris always came across to me as knowing the answer to any question due to his extraordinary experience but wanted the rest of us to find and own it ourselves. He was honest, direct, and always motivated by service to others.”

 

“Chris was a very special spirit, he embodied wisdom and kindness,” says current GCY board chair, Yasmine Coupal. 

 

CEO, Erin Lewellen, shares “I have been gifted many teachers along the way and Chris was certainly among them. I learned from his example of grace, humility, and kindness. In hard moments I found myself looking to Chris for guidance and a consistent optimism that there is a path through whatever obstacles are in front of us. And on a far more personal note, for me, as a gay woman, faith is complicated. Chris, a man of deep faith, showed me a kind of faith I could support and learn from–one that saw people through eyes of compassion and love.”

 

You will be missed Chris, and we will continue to work to uphold so many of your deeply embodied values.