Robert LIVENGOOD

LIVENGOOD Robert Aug. 4, 1938 - Mar. 30, 2010 Long-time Bowling Green resident, Robert "Bob" Livengood, passed away on March 30, in Traverse City, Michigan, due to Alzheimer's Disease. He was 71 years old. Bob was born in Terra Alta, West Virginia, on August 4, 1938. As a foster child taken in by Harold and Cleo Heighberger in Wadsworth, Ohio, Bob developed the strong work ethic that characterized his life. He graduated from Wadsworth High School in 1956 and worked his way through Bowling Green State University, earning a B.S. (1960) and an M.S. (1965) in Education. Nineteen sixty-two was an important year. On June 9, he married Judy Lynn Herbert, his wife of 48 years, in Prout Chapel on the BGSU campus. In October, he earned a certificate in physical therapy from the D.T. Watson School at the University of Pittsburgh. That same month he began a life-long commitment to public service, working as a physical therapist for the United States Public Health Service in Baltimore, Maryland, and at the National Leprosarium in Carville, Louisiana, until 1967. When Bob and Judy moved with their three children, Mark (Lisa), Mike (Tami), and Carrie (Matt), into their home of 25 years in Bowling Green in the early 1970s, Bob was an Associate Professor in the School of Health, Physical Education, and Recreation at BGSU. At BGSU, where many colleagues knew him as "Rink," Bob was head athletic trainer, treated patients at the student health center, and taught Kinesiology and related courses. Bob was a dedicated teacher. In the 1980s, as an Associate Professor in the College of Health and Human Services, he helped to establish and as Director of the Physical Therapy Program at the Medical College of Ohio at Toledo. Upon leaving MCO in 1989, he created an annual scholarship to recognize an outstanding student enrolled in the program. Bob officially retired from teaching in 1991, but continued to serve his community as Director of Physical Therapy at Wood County Hospital in Bowling Green until 1998. During this time, after nearly 50 years, Bob reunited with his biological mother, Evelyn, and two brothers, Jack and Gary. Bob and Judy moved to their home in Traverse City in 1999, and he worked for Munson Hospital Community Health center until full retirement in 2000. For the next decade, he enjoyed many of the activities he had throughout his life: volunteering, working around the house, watching sports, making peanut brittle at Christmas, and especially spending time with his family, which expanded to include seven grandchildren, Bobby, Sam, Ian, Ava, Anwyn, Ethan, and Ruby. A memorial service will be held on Monday, April 5, at 11:00 a.m. at Central United Methodist Church in Traverse City, Pastor Dale Ostema officiating; an open house celebrating Bob's life will immediately follow at the Livengood home. Memorials may be made to the Alzheimer's Association, 1319 F St. NW, Suite 500, Washington, DC, 20004; please specify research.