Paul Steven Livingston

Paul Steven Livingston Dec. 4, 1942 Nov. 3, 2017

Paul Livingston, beloved father, grandfather and attorney succumbed to complications from injuries sustained from a terrible car crash.

As a practicing attorney for 33 years, Paul Livingston was a tireless advocate for justice and for the rights of the disempowered. Scrupulously honest, he accepted many cases on a contingency basis and without regard for financial gain. Throughout his adult life, he was active in civil rights causes and as an advocate for constitutional rights.

He was born in New York City in 1942 to Jewish parents, Lillian and Jules Livingston, and grew up in Woodmere, Long Island, graduating from Hewlett High School in 1960. In 1964, he earned a BA in English literature from Union College and went on to attend the famed creative writers’ workshop at the University of Iowa. Returning to Manhattan in 1965, he became a social worker and then a special education teacher at Junior High School 22 on the Lower East Side. As an activist, he demonstrated for civil rights in the 1965 March on Washington. He and his future wife, Sara Moore, also marched at the Chicago Democratic Convention in 1968. During the 1960s, the two participated in many demonstrations, sit-ins and concerts of the time. Sara brought him to her home in beautiful New Mexico for the first time in 1969.

In 1970, Paul obtained a master’s degree in special education from City College, NY. In 1971, he and Sara began spending summers in New Mexico and lived for a time in Taos. In 1974, the couple moved permanently to New Mexico and began a business making and selling jewelry and crafts. As a nonindigenous vendor at the portal of the Palace of the Governors in Santa Fe, Paul was part of a civil rights lawsuit (Livingston vs. Ewing) that was appealed up to the U.S. Supreme Court. Although the Court declined to hear the case, the non-indigenous vendors nevertheless secured spots to sell on the Plaza in 1976. At the recommendation of then-Governor Bruce King, Paul began law school at UNM and obtained his J.D. in 1982.

As an attorney in Albuquerque, he successfully litigated several cases on behalf of patients in medical malpractice cases and later supported many bluecollar city workers, bus drivers, and labor union causes. He worked diligently and singlehandedly to support transparency in city government and open meetings, including inspection of public records, police oversight, and department of health issues. In 2004 in Bernalillo, NM, he was instrumental in supporting one of the first county clerks in the nation to grant gay marriage licenses.

Paul is survived by his wife of 48 years, Sara Moore Livingston (a Roswell, NM native), sons Paul and Chris, daughterin-law Elizabeth Amberg Livingston, and two beautiful grandchildren, Audrey and Reed all Albuquerque residents. He has one younger brother, Robert Livingston, and sister-inlaw May Lee Livingston of Port Washington, NY.

His life will be celebrated at the Albuquerque Zen Center, 2300 Garfield Ave. SE, on Sunday, Nov. 19, at 2 PM. A reception will follow the service for family and friends. Flowers and donations to the center will be graciously accepted.