FRANK B. LIVINGSTONE (1928-2005)

Frank B. Livingstone died in Springfield, Ohio, on March 21, 2005, from complications from Parkinson’s disease. He was born on December 8, 1928 in Winchester, Massachusetts to Guy P. Livingstone and Margery Brown Livingstone (both deceased).

He graduated from Winchester High School in 1946 and Harvard University in 1950. After spending two years in the U.S. Army, Frank began graduate work in the Anthropology Department at the University of Michigan. He completed a doctoral degree in 1957, and joined the University of Michigan’s Anthropology faculty in 1959. Livingstone worked in Liberia, West Africa, to test the correlation between sickle cell anemia and malaria. This work played a central role in changing the field of biological anthropology from a static to a vibrant discipline. Livingstone also contributed to other subdisciplines of Anthropology. Most notable was his work on race, one of Anthropology’s most central and troubling problems. Recognition of the importance of Livingstone’s work earned him the Martin Luther King Award granted by the Southern Christian Leadership Conference.

He was the author of Abnormal Hemoglobin in Human Populations (Aldine Press, 1967), and dozens of diverse articles and technical reports in related fields including such provocative titles as “On the Non-existence of Human Races” (1962), “Did Australopithecines Sing” (1973), and “What Happened to the Universality of the Incest Taboo” (1991). During his long career at Michigan, Livingstone mentored many graduate students, now all distinguished in their own related fields, counseled hundreds of undergraduate students, work he truly loved, and served as chair of the Anthropology Department.

Frank B. Livingstone retired from Michigan’s Anthropology Department in 1998. The following year he received the Charles R. Darwin Award for Lifetime Achievement from the American Association of Physical Anthropologists. In 2002 a symposium was held in his honor at the annual meeting of that association.

Frank is survived by his wife Carol Ludington whom he married on August 13, 1960. Their daughter, Amy, continues the family’s academic tradition and is now an Associate Professor of History and Chair of her Department at Wittenberg University in Ohio. Surviving too, are Amy’s husband, Gordon Thompson, Frank’s golfing, fishing, and hockey partner, and beloved grandsons, Samuel and William. His brothers James Livingstone (Charlene) of Belmont MA, Guy Livingstone II (Ardith) of Signal Mountain, TN, and many nieces and nephews also survive. Carol Livingstone now lives in Springfield, Ohio, near the extended family that she and Frank have nurtured and loved.

The family asks that, in lieu of flowers, donations be made either to a personal charity or to the Spuhler Fund at the University of Michigan’s Department of Anthropology, which provides support for graduate students. A memorial will be held in Ann Arbor, Michigan, at 12:30pm on April 16, 2005 at the Michigan League.

To send donations:

Julie Winningham

Livingstone Memorial/Spuhler Fund

Dept. of Anthropology

101 West Hall

1085 S. University

Ann Arbor, MI 48109-1107