Jorge G. Castro ’79

The following is an expanded version of a memorial published in the June 1, 2016, issue.

Jorge died March 29, 2015, of cancer.

He attended Loyola Jesuit High in Los Angeles before winning a scholarship to Milton Academy. A politics major at Princeton, Jorge graduated magna cum laude, and won a Danforth Fellowship.

He earned a master’s degree in government from Harvard and was a Ph.D. candidate there before joining Wall Street, working at J.P. Morgan and Goldman Sachs. Jorge then became a chartered financial analyst and founded CIC/HCM Asset Management, which later became Lombardia Capital, a successful asset-management company.

A nationally respected civic leader, Jorge’s passion for social justice, inclusion, and progress took shape at Princeton, where he helped found the Chicano Caucus and was on the Third World Center Governance Board. He organized campus protests for, among others, Princeton’s divestiture in South Africa. David Ayon ’79 said, “Jorge had the presence of mind, chutzpah, confidence, and qualities to be a leader in a wide range of situations.”

Jorge helped increase educational and economic opportunity for Latinos and other minorities and served on the boards of several nonprofits and public organizations. He was a member of the Association of Latino Princeton Alumni and Princeton’s Alumni Schools Committee. A trailblazer, change agent, generous colleague, and mentor, Jorge believed in the importance of giving back. Leslie Bond ’79 said, “Jorge was my brother; our promise to each other was to always focus on the things that unite us, not those that divide us.”

Jorge’s greatest sources of joy and pride were his wife, Nancy; and his son, Dominic. We offer our condolences to Jorge’s family and many friends.