Nick Livingston

Nick Livingston — architect, artist, pianist, writer of novels, screenplays and poetry, and spouse of Reverend Ellen D. Livingston — died peacefully on New Year’s Day 2019 at Oak Park Manor in Claremont, California. He was 87 years old.

Nick was born in 1931 in Aurora, Illinois to Olga and Burt Livingston. He graduated from Ripon College in Wisconsin with a degree in history, then served in the US Army at the end of the Korean War. After receiving his architectural degree from the University of Illinois, he worked in Africa, Texas, and the Chicago suburbs, designing residential and commercial buildings.

He met his wife, then Ellen Harvell Dohner, in Park Forest, Illinois, where she was serving as lead minister to the Unitarian Universalist Congregation of the South Suburbs. They met when he played the piano for services at that congregation and would bring his band for social events.

At the time the congregation had to rent space for their services. Mr. Livingston offered to design and build a modern cedar-framed building on land the church owned in the woods in Park Forest. He not only volunteered his services but followed through on helping to raise money for the project. Three years after the dedication of the new building, he and Ellen became engaged. They were wed in 1982 at the new church building which offered views of the forest through the large windows Mr. Livingston had designed.

Four years after they were married Ellen accepted the call of Monte Vista Unitarian Universalist Congregation in Montclair, California. In August 1986, they moved to California. The Livingstons soon fell in love with the state and have lived here ever since.

Nick transferred his architectural license to California and worked as a freelancer and builder in the inland valley until he retired in 2012. He designed many additions and improvements at the congregation, and served as its maintenance person. As the church’s programs expanded, he designed and built a classroom wing dedicated to and named after him, Livingston Hall.

He was a true Renaissance man, with many talents and accomplishments.

Nick often played the piano for church worship services and social events. He enjoyed playing favorite songs, while friends sang. Sometimes he was accompanied by other musicians with stringed instruments and drums.

As a painter, he had several shows over the years, both in the Chicago area and in California, where his work was shown at the dA Center for the Arts in Pomona, galleries in Laguna Beach, at the Monte Vista Unitarian Universalist Congregation, and most recently at Claremont Village Green. All of his works were painted in California and Mexico, where he was inspired by nature’s variety of gorgeous landscapes.

Four years ago he published a novel, Stained Glass Warrior. In it he portrays a young artist from the Chicago inner city who is drafted into the army, and his struggles to survive injuries sustained on the battlefield in World War II. The protagonist developed artistic projects to encourage alternatives to a culture of war.

Although he served in the US Army during the Korean War as a teacher of enlisted men in Germany, he was a man of peace and was passionate about civil rights and the founding tenets of our democratic republic.

The Livingstons enjoyed traveling and had three places they considered their spiritual homes: Cambria, California; San Miguel de Allende, Mexico; and Ms. Livingston’s birthplace, Boston. They especially enjoyed Hispanic people, culture and places, and traveled to Mexico often.

His family shared that even with his many accomplishments, it was his love of life and people that was his most outstanding gift. A friend said “Nick knew how to have fun, not take life too seriously. He made me and others around him feel important. To him, all of us were. He made me a better person for having known him.”

He leaves behind his wife, the Reverend Ellen Livingston; three stepchildren, Markus and Luke Dohner, and Katherine Dohner Acenas; five grandchildren; his niece Karen Jenneke, her brother David Jenneke, his wife Sandy and their son, Nickolas. Messages of condolence can be sent to Ellen Livingston, Apt 9A, 630 W Bonita Ave. Claremont CA 91711.