Scott Phillip Livingston, 51, a former editor of The Dispatch, departed life unexpectedly Tuesday.
With his wife, Karin Ann Fox Livingston, who is also a former California newspaper editor, Livingston had owned and operated Poudre River Stables, a horse boarding and livery business in Fort Collins, Colo. since 1990.
He was found dead by his family sitting peacefully in a chair in his family room on July 22. Livingston had survived a major heart attack in 1989, which had forced him to retire from journalism. Since that time he had lived a healthy and robust life, working alongside his wife raising horses and two precocious children.
Livingston edited The Gilroy Dispatch from 1980 to 1984, helping the newspaper to win numerous awards for journalistic excellence. From 1986 to 1990, he edited the Hayward Daily Review. He was also an editor at the Sacramento Bee from 1978 to 1979 and an editor and reporter at the Owensboro Messenger & Inquirer in Kentucky from 1974 to 1977.
“Scott was one of the most intensely passionate journalists I ever knew,” said Jack Lyness, a colleague at several of those newspapers.
“He was never an easy man to work for because he always demanded an unswerving commitment to excellence on his terms,” Lyness remembered. “But readers in each of the communities that his newspapers served benefited from his determination. Many top journalists working around the country today learned much of what they know while working at their first jobs with and for Scott.”
A native of Worcester, Mass., Livingston’s first job, at age 14, found him renting out air mattresses to tourists on York Beach in Maine. At Ohio Wesleyan University, where he earned his degree in journalism, he tended bar at the local American Legion. He briefly handled public relations chores in the Chicago headquarters of Rotary International. Between newspaper assignments, he also did farm work, tilling western Kentucky soybean fields and harvesting corn.
While Karin is well known in Fort Collins for her leadership at school and in 4-H, Scott always provided the strong hand of support in the background. He loved trout fishing, wood working, reading Tom Clancy novels, listening to good music and celebrating life with his friends. Most of his friends probably never knew that early in his life, Livingston was an accomplished concert violinist and downhill ski racer.
He is survived by his wife, Karin, his daughter, Kalinda, and his son, Jarrod, all at home; his stepfather, Kurt Nolden; stepmother, June Livingston; and father- and mother-in-law, Ken and Shirley Fox.
Visitation will take place at the Goes Funeral Home (3665 Canal Drive, Suite E, Fort Collins, CO 80524) until 8 p.m., today. A funeral Mass will be said at Saint Joseph Catholic Church at 11 a.m. Saturday with a reception luncheon to follow. In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to Saint Joseph Catholic School or the Larimer County 4-H Horse Council in care of the funeral home.
