Robert John "Skip" Livingston's Obituary
Robert John (Skip) Livingston, 86, died in Tallahassee, FL, on March 1, 2024. The cause of death was Lewy Body Dementia.
Skip is survived by his wife of sixty-two years, Marilyn (Mimi) Wiley Livingston, and their children Rebecca Reese (Andy Reese), Julia Livingston, Robert Matthew Livingston, and Andrew Livingston. Grandson, Brandon Reese; his brother David Livingston (Barbara) and their three children Lauri Livingston, Jennifer Schwartz (Larry), and David Livingston; his brothers-in-law: Samuel Wiley and nephew Blake Wiley (predeceased); Mark Wiley, and nieces Liz Wiley and Kelly Wiley Gibbs (Brandon); his sister-in-law Jacqueline Wiley Roy (predeceased), and niece Darci Wiley Jones.
A memorial service will be held on Saturday, March 16, 2024, at 2:00 p.m. at St. Johns Episcopal Church, Tallahassee, FL.
Skip was born on May 20, 1937, in Jersey City, NJ, to Robert Stanley Livingston and Erna Woelfle and raised in Ridgewood, NJ. His Uncle Robby nicknamed him Skippy as a baby, and the name stuck for life. He was the valedictorian of the class of 1955 at Ridgewood High School and graduated with an AB, Cum Laude from Princeton University. After a brief stint as an Investment Banker with Merrill Lynch on Wall Street, he returned to school to study marine biology. Skip’s post-graduate work began at Columbia University in New York, NY, where he consistently made the Dean’s List. He attended Scripps Institution of Oceanography, then enrolled in the Rosenstiel Institute of Marine, Atmospheric & Earth Sciences at the University of Miami. He received his Ph.D. in Marine Biology from the University of Miami in 1970.
Skip’s four great loves were his wife, Mimi, his career as a marine biologist, his dogs, and his four children.
After completing his Ph.D. studies, Skip joined the Department of Biological Science faculty at Florida State University, Tallahassee, FL, where he taught Biology to scores of breathlessly bored undergraduates. He also developed lifelong relationships with his employees and many of his forty-nine graduate students (MS and Ph.D.). After thirty-five years, Skip retired from Florida State University as a Professor Emeritus. As a state employee, he felt strongly that it was necessary to give back to the citizens of Florida.
Outside the university system, Skip had unlimited public service responsibilities, fighting for the waterways in North America and educating people about the importance of respecting our environment. He was the top scientific witness and consultant on local, state, and federal environmental legal cases for over four decades. The cases he worked on always won, with many making environmental legal history. Selected Highlights: He helped save the Black Mangrove swamps throughout Florida (Graham v. Estuary Properties). Working with the governor of Puerto Rico, he helped win the first landmark environmental cases against the United States Navy to force the cleanup of the small island of Vieques used as a naval training range of weapons since WW II. The unprecedented Hawaiian Waiahole Decision involved returning land to Native Hawaiians from the sugar and pineapple industries.
Skip was a consultant on at least two dozen cases for the National Resource Defense Council (NRDC). He worked hundreds of hours as a team member with NRDC lawyers for two landmark cases, NRDC v. Texico Refining and Marketing Inc. and Maine People Alliance and NRDC v. Mallinckrodt. The small NRDC team won both cases. Skip consulted for multiple environmental groups, including the Sierra Club, Riverkeepers, and the Environmental Defense Fund. A simple Google search of his name lists many of his extraordinary accomplishments.
Skip, a prolific author, wrote over 150 publications and five books. He also won numerous honors, including the Third Annual Conservator Award (1981) at the Apalachicola Seafood Festival for his years of notable work for the Apalachicola seafood industry. He received multiple awards, including the Woodman of the World Conservation Award from Woodsmen Life Insurance. 1982, he was Florida Scientist of the Year, which the Museum of Science and Industry, Tampa, FL, awarded.
Skip had multiple interests, including reading, writing, and cinema. He created an extensive movie library of hundreds of videos. During the post-funeral reception, his family will happily give their guests videotapes (VCR and Beta) as keepsakes to Skip’s memory.
Please do not send flowers because Mimi is a florist and owns Mimi’s Garden Gates. Instead, his family requests donations in his memory to one of the following organizations:
NRDC
Leon County Humane Society
https://www.leoncountyhumane.org/donate/
Doctors Without Borders
https://donate.doctorswithoutborders.org/secure/rr-donate-onetime-web?source=ADU2011U0W46
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