Livingston L. Biddle ’40

Most merit an obituary in the local paper; only a few are recognized with lengthy tributes coast-to-coast. Liv belonged to the second group. His daughter, Cordelia, said he had heart problems and had been in failing health prior to his death on May 3, 2002.

Liv prepared at Montgomery School in Chester Springs, Pa., and St. George's; at Princeton he majored with honors in English and French; he was a member of the tennis team and Colonial Club.

After graduation, he was a reporter for the Philadelphia Evening Bulletin, until WWII took him to Africa, where he was an ambulance driver. Postwar, Liv wrote four novels, two of which were bestsellers. In the early 1960s, he found a second career in DC as legislative assistant to classmate Senator Clay Pell. But what subsequently brought national recognition was his work drafting precedent-setting legislation establishing a National Arts and Humanities Foundation. President Carter appointed him chairman of the Endowment for the Arts. As Liv was to say in 1985, "The arts are so fragile, like flowers in your garden. If you do not water them, they'll wither and blow away."

Survivors include his wife, Catherina Bart, daughter Cordelia, son Livingston IV, and five grandchildren. To them all, his classmates offer their sincere condolences.

The Class of 1940