Wayne Livingston

Wayne was born January 24, 1927 in Bloomington Indiana. He was the son of Harry and Blanche (Roach) Livingston. Wayne’s nickname from a young age was “Bud”. He would tell the story of his first day of school. The teacher addressed him as “Wayne”. Confused, He exclaimed, “My name’s not Wayne. My name is Bud!”

As he got older, and embarked on his career, only family members and close friends addressed him by his nickname.
Wayne proudly served in the Army during WW2. He was stationed in the middle east. He enjoyed telling stories of travels to see the Pyramids, Casablanca, and the Holy Land.

Wayne graduated from Indiana University and was in the Kappa Sigma fraternity. He always embraced math and science and studied to be a chemist. It was at IU that he met his future wife. He and Helen Louise Duell were married in 1951 and spent 66 happy, busy years together.
Helen and Wayne had two children, Cynthia (Mike) Martinovic, and Michael (Martha) Livingston. They had two grandchildren, Jessica and Kaitlyn Livingston.

Wayne worked hard most of his life. He worked in his father’s grocery as a child and went on to be a chemist for the Bloomington Waterworks during college. After college, He and Helen moved to the Chicago area where he had a job working in the laboratory at Derby Foods, Peter Pan Peanut Butter, and later for Kellogg. Wayne holds two patents for processes he invented.

Wayne loved Classical music and he loved to read. He was an avid College basketball Hoosier Fan. He was very handy around the house and could fix anything that broke. He built the families televisions and the “Hi Fi” from a kit. He kept the family car in tip top shape, back in the days when cars were built to fix without a computer.
Summers were spent travelling. He and Helen (and later with the children) took Road trips all over the country to nearly all of our National Parks. After retiring, he and Helen took many wonderful trips overseas. They moved to High Point, North Carolina.

When Helen passed away in 2017, Wayne moved back to the Chicago area to live with his Daughter and her husband. Despite many health issues, he was content. He especially loved the weekend trips to the family cabin in Galena. He enjoyed the peace and having the beauty of nature surrounding him.

Wayne was preceded in death by his parents, his sisters, Ester Ruth (in childhood), and Alma June Pottorf (Bill) and his loving wife Helen.
Wayne is survived by his daughter, Cynthia and her husband, Mike, His son Michael and his wife Martha and their two children Jessica and Kaitlyn. He is also survived by his sister in law Joan Pitzer and her husband Franklin, Nieces Karyl Gabriel (Samir), and Susan Stowe and Nephew Brent Pottorf (Jill).

Wayne passed peacefully with his daughter at his side, in the early morning hours of November 25, 2019. A Celebration of Life Service will take place 1:00 pm Saturday, December 7, 2019 at Law-Jones Funeral Home, Mt. Carroll, Illinois with a visitation from 11:00 am - 1:00 pm prior to the service. Inurnment will take place in Oakville Cemetery near Mt Carroll next to his wife and his sister June.