Remembering Our Friend and Colleague Jonathan Clark

Last month, members of the NISO team and board were deeply saddened to learn of the sudden passing of Jonathan Clark. Jonathan gave generously of his time and expertise to NISO, serving as Past Chair of our board at the time of his death and as Chair in 2025–26. 

As Todd Carpenter outlines in this month's Letter from the Executive Director, Jonathan was an enthusiastic and engaged board member, sharing his expertise to help us shape our core values and strategic plan. Members of the NISO team would like to take this opportunity to share some personal memories of working with him—memories that reflect how Jonathan was known not only for his leadership insights, but for his warmth, friendliness, and eagerness to make people feel welcome.

Note: The program for our upcoming virtual conference, NISO Plus Global/Online, includes a session entitled “Persistently Evolving: What’s New in the World of PIDs.”  Jonathan would have been a great addition to this panel, and his presence will be greatly missed. In honor of his work on behalf of persistent identifiers and information standards, we will open the session to anyone who wants to attend, at no cost. We'll add registration information to our events calendar soon.

Jill Morris, Executive Director, PALCI, and NISO Board Chair

Jonathan's passing is a deep loss for our entire community. His work built collaboration and trust across the field of information management in ways that will continue to shape NISO for years to come. As the NISO board's immediate past chair, he brought steadiness and genuine warmth to every conversation, guiding us brilliantly through the uncertainty of the past few years with grace. He was one of the kindest people I have had the privilege to work with, the sort of colleague who made everyone around him feel welcome and at ease. I stepped into his former chair role this past July, and I carry his example with me now, along with a deep awareness of how much his perspective, his patience, and his quiet leadership will be missed. I know I speak for the rest of the board to say that we will do our best to honor his memory with our work this year, and our thoughts are with his family, his friends, and everyone else across NISO who was fortunate enough to know him.

Keondra Bailey, Standards Program Manager

The last time I saw Jonathan Clark was in July 2026 at the ISO TC 46 Plenary in Milan. He gave me the biggest, warmest hug, and I was so happy he could join us. At the plenary, even with those he was meeting that day for the first time, he treated them with the camaraderie of someone he already knew. Jonathan absolutely radiated warmth, and his energy was contagious. He was a force of encouragement for everyone he encountered, and he genuinely cared deeply for this work and the people who do it. I truly wish I'd had more time to get to know him.

Mary Beth Barilla, Director of Business Development and Communications

Jonathan was very generous with his time and expertise. Those of you who work on events know how intense those weeks just prior to the big day(s) can be, and it meant so much to have him take an active role in NISO Plus meetings. If you've ever heard him speak, you know that he was a lively, engaging presenter who excelled at bringing people together and making them feel like part of a community. Most recently, I worked with him on the interactive closing session for the February 2026 conference in Baltimore, and it was wonderful to see the master at work—gathering valuable feedback on the conference and some of the ideas generated there while also injecting fun, warmth, and a sense of camaraderie into the proceedings.

Kimberly Gladfelter, Education Program Manager & DEIA Advocate

Jonathan Clark was a lovely soul who brought positivity and thoughtfulness to each and every activity.  He was forthcoming, gracious, and intentional. It was simply part of his nature, equally present whether in one-on-one conversations, planning meetings, or plenary conference events.

It is a heavy thought that we won't have the pleasure of his company again or benefit from his good nature in person.  But, I hope we can carry something of his ethos forward with us, in the positivity, generosity, and thoughtfulness as we interact and address the work and issues he cared so much about.

Former NISO Team Members Weigh In

Given his interest in and advocacy for scholarly infrastructure and open research, it's no surprise that Jonathan was involved in NISO for many years before he was elected to our board. We asked some former NISO colleagues who worked with him to join us in sharing their thoughts.

Jason Griffey, Executive Director, Open Science Hardware Foundation

Jonathan was one of my favorite collaborators, and he made everything he was involved in better for his contributions. I am so saddened by his loss, both for the community and selfishly that I won’t have the opportunity to learn from him any longer

Nettie Lagace, Program Director, Silverchair

Jonathan's input on the board and as the Chair of the Architecture Committee (the year he was incoming Board Chair) was always helpful and practical. He was able to approach old problems with a freshness and spirit that was really encouraging to those of us in the trenches, and on Architecture calls where topic committee representatives had varying perspectives and experiences ... somehow he was really effective in maximizing our little monthly group. It's really sad to think he's not here any longer. 

Alice Meadows, Scholarly Communications Consultant, Ore Consulting

I met Jonathan when he facilitated—at very short notice and with great success—an SSP event I was helping to organize while I was working in scholarly publishing in the early 2010s. I was delighted when our paths crossed again (and again and again!) when I moved into the PID/research infrastructure world a couple of years later, first at ORCID, then at NISO, and more recently as fellow consultants. He was one of those people who I always looked forward to seeing—kind, smart, generous with his time and expertise, an all-around good person. His passing is a great loss to everyone who knew him—and to the information community at large.