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| Larry Livingston aka L-Squared Our Friend and Collegue March 28, 2011 |
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| Three years ago, Larry and Judy were driving home from vacation, northbound on I-75 outside of Macon Georgia when Larry blacked out at the wheel. The couple miraculously survived that incident, and Larry went on to find out that he had a non-malignant tumor in his brain. Following the initial surgery Larry and his surgeons felt that the operation was a complete success, and that Larry could go back to the business of being Larry. Unfortunately, after some time has passed, the tumor resurfaced, bringing with it additional black-outs and siezures, albeit with some periods of relative normalacy in his life. The battle was then on in earnest, and over the course of the past couple of years, Larry has undergone surgeries and radiation treatments to remove the tumor, and combat complications from the procedeure itself. Unfortunately, the final chapter of that incident was written on Monday morning, March 28th, at about 11am when Larry lost his valiant battle at the age of 66, against this irrepressible invader that refused to go away. Larry was always on call. His trademark "If you needs me - calls me," was heeded quite often by those of us on staff at Brossart High School. When the gym lights needed replacement - Larry was there to replace them. Scoreboard lights - ditto. I'd often call Larry on short notice to help sell T-Shirts, and Larry was the man with the air compressor who would work in sweltering heat inflating hundreds of camp balls over the years. Most recently he and Tom Holtz erected the popular flat-screen TV in our concession stand lobby. Larry was our Director of Transportation, a job he took quite seriously. He not only drove our busses for our athletic teams but assigned drivers and maintained the paperwork. Less than a year ago I was sitting on a massive boulder in the middle of the North Channel of Lake Huron enjoying lunch on our annual Canadian fishing trip, talking to Larry on my cell phone about some requirements for taking the Number 1 bus to Coastal Carolina for team camp. Larry not only worked for us, but is great friends with Covington Catholic head basketball coach Mike Listerman, and when Larry was free - he drove the Colonels to their destinations. He "worked" with and around folks and things that he enjoyed. Serving as a handy man with Skip Hick's construction crew, and as a starter and clerk at A.J. Jolly Golf Course. L-Squared, as he was known to his friends, was at his finest on the annual State Tournament trips where he assumed the role as "hospitality director" at the Hampton Inn where we stayed. He was a regular at Spare Time Grill where the retirees gather on a daily basis to discuss politics, religion, and any other topic dujour, solving the world's problems.. It was Larry Livingston who directed me to the Max Livingston blog, when his just-born grandson encountered complications and found himself fighting for his life. We followed the Max adventure for the best part of three years, before a successful kidney transplant seems to have rescued Max from impending doom. Who would have thought at that time that it would have been Grandpa Larry who we would be mourning today??? Perhaps Larry in his ever-present generous manner worked out a pact with his God, and exchanged his life for Max's. In the pictue at lower left, Larry is being presented his plaque, inducting him into the Contributors' Wing of the Northern Kentucky Athletic Directors Hall of Fame. Larry was the proud owner of a Bennington Pontoon Boat. He was so good at exuding its merits that the company he purchased it from hired him to sell Benningtons at the Annual Sport and Travel Show. Larry Livingston was many things to many folks - Friend, family man, coach, salesman, electrician, and handy man. Looking back at the wonderful things Larry did for so many people, and for the positive impact he had on all of the lives he touched, he would very humbly tell you that "it was just a small part of my job." At his funeral mass during the euology, Fr. Egbers provided a humerous interlude which was appropriate with Larry's love of boating. He compared Larry's passing to embarking on a voyage on a sailing ship, docked here at the Port of Alexandria with all of his friends and family gathered on the dock to see him off. As he sailed off into the sunset his physical presence became smaller and smaller as it neared the horizon, and became larger and larger as it approached the Port of Heaven. Upon his arrival Jesus and all of Larry's departed family and friends were there to greet him. Upon disembarkng and meeting Jesus face to face, Larry surveyed the surroundings and in very Larry Livingstonlike manner, proclaimed, as only Larry could proclaim it - "It doesn't get any better than this." A phrase we have all heard Larry speak many times duing his journey here on earth. |
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| The background recording is of Mike Swauger inducting Larry Livingston into the Northern Kentucky Athletic Director's Hall of Fame and Larry's acceptance speech. |