By Jeff Wilson
From Dr. Mitchel Livingston’s humble beginnings came great success and philanthropy with a clear cause: Lift others.
The path for a Black boy born in Decatur in 1944 was one filled with obstacles, but Livingston found a way to hurdle each one.
“Though we were poor monetarily, the richness of our experience coming up as children was fantastic. I didn’t know what poverty was until I was much older. It was a loving caring family, and a loving caring community,” he said. “Though we understood the issues of race and racism and the like, it didn’t have the pain that we have experienced since the late-60s.
“Community is the most important asset that you have. The ability to reach out to people who do look like you or don’t look like you,” he said.
Despite the low expectations set by some at the time, his competitive spirit and work ethic shone through enough and afforded him an opportunity to attend SIU.
“I can recall … visiting with my advisor who told me I was not college material. I would go vocational, and I would work with my hands,” Livingston said. “It was the kind of advice many young, Black boys got back then and many today. It was like a dagger, because I was a dreamer.”
After graduating high school, he attended a track meet where his younger brother broke his school record in the high jump.
“I had these mixed feelings of joy for him, then someone asked me ‘What’s it like being an old man at age 18?’ I took off my shoes and ran over and jumped over that bar right behind him. My brother owned that record for only a few moments.”
The night of his athletic display, his former basketball coach, Joe Russell, came to Livingston’s family home and asked his father if the story about the high jump was true. When his father confirmed it, the coach said he was traveling to Carbondale soon and would mention the accomplishment to the track and field coach, Lew Hartzog.
“That was what opened the door for me in higher education and launched me as the first member of my family to ever go to college,” Livingston said. “The connection with my community and my coach and his connection to SIU earned me a tryout. I went to Carbondale and had a great jump, and I was offered a four-year scholarship on the spot. I had a chance to compete, both academically and athletically.
“SIU had high expectations of me. I didn’t want to fail my family as the first one to go off to college. Every course I took, I read the book before I went into the classroom. I stopped counting myself out. I grew physically and competed and beat some of the best athletes in the world.”
After SIU
Now, Livingston is an emeritus professor and vice president at the University of Cincinnati, but SIU will forever have a special spot in his heart.
“I am so proud that I am a member of a community that helped launch me to academics, to service and community,” he said. “And none could have done it better than SIU, and for that I am eternally grateful. This is family for life.”
In 2021, he and his wife, Carol, made a $50,000 gift to establish the Mitchel and Carol Livingston Scholarship. This fund supports undergraduate students in the School of Education’s Teacher Education Program who have a cumulative GPA of 3.0 and demonstrated financial need, with a preference for African American students.
“We have seen the light turn off in the eyes of young people way too early because of lack of opportunity, not lack of ability, not where you come from, just being passed over in so many different ways,” Livingston said. “My wife and I have learned there are ways to turn those lights on, and once you light up a person’s life in that way, they can make it. And we want to be one of those lamp lights for as many children like us as possible.”
Both Mitchel and Carol Livingston graduated from SIU’s School of Education, in 1969 and 1971 respectively.
“We are very much committed to the Teacher Education Program in the School of Education,” he said. “We are educators. That’s who we are. That’s what we do, and we want to make sure that our resources are focused in that way. I could not have done it without the investment SIU made in me.”
The Livingstons hope their gifts will inspire others to support students in similar ways.
“The advice that I would give to students or alumni about giving is that it must become a way of life. You did not get here by yourself,” he said. “Others were in our lives that help us get to where we are, develop a lifestyle of giving, not just giving presents or gifts or doing nice things, but a lifetime of expectation that it is your duty and your obligation to give back as it was given to you.”
The Livingstons hope their gifts will inspire others to support students in similar ways. Recently, Dr. Livingston received the Great Living Cincinnatian Award. He believes if students can make it, they can excel.
“Thank you, SIU, you are the gift that keeps on giving,” he said.
To make a gift, visit siuf.org.