Words by James Eddy
Andrew ‘Doc’ Livingston was never one to be left wondering, or to allow others’ ideas to hold him back from where he wanted to go. It’s why he and his wife Barb were married by Elvis in a Las Vegas chapel, why he became a WWI German machine gunner (albeit for a week in a 2011 war movie they filmed locally), and why he and Barb got their kit off along with 1000 strangers on the Opera House steps for the famous artist Spencer Tunic.
He lived for the next laugh. He loved his cricket and he loved professional wrestling. Footy to him was all codes. “You don’t need to choose!” he demanded whenever people wanted to debate.
He loved his Sharks, and he loved the Swans, and he tried to teach his toddler daughters the team song as their first words: “Cheer, cheer the red and the white…!”
You couldn’t pin a label on Doc Livingston... he was a chameleon in the community and loved to just be out and about, doing things.
You were equally likely to find him at a Screaming Jets concert or at the DRTCC lapping up local theatre. He lived for experiences. He was cheeky beyond measure and loved a joke.
A beloved PE teacher at Delroy Campus and the Senior Campus of Dubbo College between 2001 and 2012, it was on a teaching exchange in Canada in 2013 when they discovered a massive tumour in his brain. And so, for the past 10 years, he had fended off the lurking Grim Reaper, and he just got busy living.
He was a proud office bearer in the Masonic Lodge and an active member of the Dubbo Men’s shed and the Dubbo RSL Sub-branch.
On Wednesday afternoon, April 3, 2024 we farewelled a mate all too soon. A husband to Barb, father to Hazel and Bridget, son to Peter and Jenny, brother to Ruth, Sarah and Simon.
A huge gathering of family, old school friends, long-time Army buddies, colleagues and community members met in the RSL auditorium to pay tribute to a bloke who lived as an example to us all. It was a ceremony of celebration, and the beers, tears and laughter flowed freely into the evening. Doc would have loved it.
Vale, Andrew 'Doc' Livingston, and may your brand of mischief live on in us all and bring you immortality.