NEW SCOTLAND — John Livingston was a proud and accomplished man who served his country in war. And, like so many growing up amid the Great Depression, he was shaped by it but still came away with “some great stories.” 

Mr. Livingston died Friday, May 15, 2020. He was 93.

John “Jack” P. Livingston was born to Robert F. Livingston and Jane (née Taylor) Livingston on May 3, 1927, in Granville, New York.

 Robert Livingston worked at a slate quarry in Granville in Washington County that closed during the Depression, Donna Gartelman, Mr. Livingston’s daughter, said. 

Mrs. Gartelman said her grandfather then went to work on a farm in Granville before coming to the area to work on a farm on Font Grove Road in Slingerlands.

Mr. Livingston was about 5 years old when his father moved the family — five boys in total and their mother — to the area, Mrs. Gartelman said. His mother died when Mr. Linvingston was 10, she said, so he was sent to live with his grandmother back in Granville for a time. 

“He had some great stories about being on the farm, the Genovese farm,” Mrs. Gartelman said of her father; it was during the Depression, and they were bootlegging liquor at the time. 

Yes, the Genoveses at the Genovese farm was the crime family, she said; the family was in the bakery business so could access all the sugar it needed to produce moonshine.

Mrs. Gartelman recalled one of the stories her father told her about his time on the farm. 

A game warden came to the farm because there were all of these fish dying in the Normanskill Creek, she said, and he had traced it back up to the farm where they were making moonshine in an old barn somewhere on the property.

Her father also relayed another memorable interaction: “He was 10 at the time, so a big gun in the backseat of a car really stuck in his mind.”

While in school at Voorheesville, Mrs. Gartelman said, her father only went until the eighth grade; however, he would go on to earn his general equivalency diploma (GED) after he was discharged from the United States Navy.

For a number of years, Mr. Livingston worked at the Duffy Mott Company in Voorheesville, where they made apple cider and vinegar, Mrs. Gartelman said, before it closed up shop and moved to the western part of the state.

While he was working at Duffy Mott, he met the woman who would become his wife. Susie and John Livingston were married in 1946, their daughter said. 

Mr. and Mrs. Livingston were married for 66 years, their marriage ending only with her death.

Mr. Livingston served in the Naval Armed Guard Service from 1944 to 1946.

“He served in the Asiatic Pacific area of New Guinea, Leyte Gulf, and Okinawa,” his family wrote in a tribute.

Mr. Livingston served as a gunner mate on merchant ships for two years, Mrs. Gartelman said, protecting those ships as they tried to make their way across the Pacific.

Like many veterans, Mr. Livingston didn’t talk about his service for a long time. “I’d say maybe 15 or 20 years ago is when I started hearing about him being in the service,” Mrs. Gartelman said.

About 10 years ago, she said, he began attending once-a-month lunches in Menands with other Naval Armed Guard Service veterans, where they would talk about life in general or their time in the service. 

“He really enjoyed going to the luncheons and talking with people who were his own age and did similar things in the military,” she said, because the Naval Armed Guard Service existed only during World War II, after which it was disbanded. 

After leaving the service, Mr. Linvingston went back to work at Mott Apple. He then went to work for Eastern Tablet, a paper company in Menands, where he did electrical work.

He worked at Eastern Tablet until he started a job for the State University of New York at Albany, where he would work for four decades. “They were building the four original towers,” Mrs. Gartelman said. Mr. Livingston went on to become the University at Albany power plant’s head engineer 

As a child of the Depression, he was very proud of what he’d accomplished over the years, purchasing his grandparents house in New Salem, which he lived in for 50 years, his daughter said. “He remembered buying it,” she said, “and it was like $4,000 or $5,000.”

“He tried very hard to make a good living to support us,” Mrs. Gartelman said

Mr. Livingston was a Shriner and a Mason, and belonged to both the American Legion and Veterans of Foreign War. At last year’s Memorial Day parade in Voorheesville, he was the Grand Marshall, his daughter said. “He was really kind of proud of that,” she said.

In retirement, Mr. and Mrs. Livingston traveled quite a bit, visiting Montreal;  Nova Scotia; and Wheeling, West Virginia. “They went down to Myrtle Beach and Atlantic City, different places with the New Scotland senior citizens.”

He took up golf toward the end of his career at the university, and he was on the American Legion team for a while.

Mrs. Gartelman said that her father was outgoing. 

“He always talked to everybody,” she said; he enjoyed going to the Window Box Café in New Scotland and having breakfast there, and just talking to the people. 

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John P. Livingston is survived by his daughters, Judy Euler of Clarksville, and Donna Gartelman and her husband, Larry, of Orange Park, Florida; his siblings, Harry, Jane, Nina, Patte, Ruth Livingston, and Geraldine Fordley; his grandchildren, Christopher Euler, Jacqueline Euler, Steven Euler and his wife, Jennifer, Scott Gartelman, Adam Gartelman and his wife, Brandy, Erika McManus and her husband, Stephen; and by his great-grandchildren, Olivia and Emma Euler, Abigail and Piper Gartelman, Paige Buckley, and Connor and Kerri McManus. He is also survived by several nieces and nephews. 

His wife, Susie, died before him, as did his son, Edward; his son-in-law, Robert Euler; his brothers, Robert, Roger, William, and Ernest; his granddaughter’s husband, Mark Capano; and his grandson’s wife, Kathy Euler.

Due to the pandemic, no funeral services will be held at this time.  

Interment will be held at a later date at the Gerald B.H. Solomon Saratoga National Cemetery, Schuylerville, NY. 

Memorial contributions may be made to Albany County Sheriff Emergency Medical Services, 21 Voorheesville Ave., Voorheesville, NY 12186, or to the Eddy Home Health Services, 433 River St., 3rd Floor, Troy, NY 12180. 

Isabella Mary Vincent is survived by her sons, Wallace E. Throop Jr. and William Jeffery Vincent, and her daughter, Judith Alexander; her grandchildren, Dawn Loux, Deborah Blakely, Denise Riedy, and Amy Alexander; her great-grandchildren; Kristen Knapp, Tricia Rulison, Christopher Rosko, Teresa Sapienza, McKinley Riedy, and Teagan Riedy; and by her great great-grandchildren, Tyler Hogan, Brianna Hogan, Abby Hogan, Lily Knapp, Harper Rulison, and Camden Rulison. 

She is also survived by her brothers, Alonzo Cartwright and Larry Cartwright, and her sister, Katherine Cuzdey.

Her husband William G. Vincent died before her, as did her sisters, Marion Vane, Esther “Peg” Hallenbeck, her brother, Francis Shufelt, and her granddaughter, Donna Sapienza.

Memorial messages may be left at www.altamontenterprise.com/milestones.

A spring burial will take place at New Scotland Cemetery; a summer memorial is planned.

— Sean Mulkerrin