Dr. Lowell Livezey (1943-2007)

A day of celebration was held at The Riverside Church in New York City today, to celebrate the life of Dr. Lowell Welden Livezey (1943-2007). There was a memorial service held at 10 a.m. to honor this great gentleman.

Dr. Livezey was born in Erie, Pa. He received his B.A. from Swarthmore College, in 1966. He received his doctor of ministry degree in 1970 from the University of Chicago, and married his Divinity School friend, Lois Von Gehr. He served as executive director of the World Without War Council (first in Chicago and then in New York).

During the Vietnam War, the World Without War Council was a center of both anti-war activism and intellectual argument about the requisites of peace making. In 1981, Dr. Livezey left the council and settled into Princeton University to write Nongovernmental Organizations and the Ideas of Human Rights (1988).

He took up academic administration and teaching, first at the Woodrow Wilson School, Princeton University, and later Chicago State University. Between 2002-2004, Dr. Livezey served as director of the Metropolitan Congregational Studies Project at Harvard University Divinity School.

This is a small sampling of the life of a very great person. Dr. Livezey is survived by his wife, Lois Gehr Livezey; his sister, Carla Thelander; his brother, Noble Livezey; many nieces and nephews, among others.