Tom Livingston, 77, of Abington Township, former reporter, assistant city editor, and managing editor of the Daily News, onetime managing editor of the Pasadena Star-News, award-winning reporter for the Arcadia Tribune, union leader, media consultant, and big time baseball fan, died Wednesday, Sept. 24, of cardiac arrest at his home.
Mr. Livingston joined the Daily News as a seasoned reporter and assistant city editor in 1975 from the Star-News in California, and rose rapidly to associate editor and managing editor. At first, he covered education, politics, city life, and the local economy, and wrote detailed stories about violence against teachers, desegregation, school budgets, drunk driving, and Jimmy Carter’s local popularity in the 1976 presidential election.
In 1975, he wrote about his unsuccessful attempt to stop smoking through hypnosis and said: “I made it through a trip to the zoo with my wife and kids the next morning … but the urge to smoke was so bad I felt like renting my own cage.”
Once promoted to managing editor, he became one of the tabloid paper’s legendary headline wits and is credited with printing “The King is Dead” when Elvis Presley died in 1977, “We Win” when the Phillies won the 1980 World Series, and “The Highs of Texas Are Upon Us” during a local heat wave that rolled in from the west.
“He had a wicked sense of humor,” his family said in a tribute, “that manifested itself in good jokes, great headlines, and God-awful puns.”
As Daily News managing editor, Mr. Livingston oversaw the newsroom budget and syndicated features, including the comics, and represented the paper at sometimes testy town hall meetings with readers. He explained the unique Daily News culture to new hires the best he could and, according to former Daily News colleague Pat McLoone, “shrewdly found pockets of money for well-meaning journalism and well-timed parties.”
Newsroom colleagues called him Captain Video because editor Gil Spencer named him head of technology as the paper transitioned from typewriters and hot type to computer terminals in the 1970s and ‘80s. “He was smart and very detail oriented,” former Daily News colleague Rich Aregood said on Facebook. Former Daily News reporter Gene Seymour added: “Truly one of the good guys.”
Mr. Livingston left the Daily News in 1988 and established InterMedia Inc. to consult and advise media startups and other organizations. He was an executive editor for Metro Kids magazine for a decade and retired for good in 2013. But he still wrote an occasional letter to the editor of the Daily News when something was on his mind.
“He cared about journalism very much,” said his wife, Maxine Waber. His son, Geoff, said: “He was curious about things. He had a nonstop thirst for knowledge.”
He earned an award from the California Newspaper Publishers Association in 1968 for a series in the Arcadia Tribune about drug abuse and joined the Star-News in Pasadena full time in 1969, after college. He spent six years at the Star-News as a youth and education reporter and editor, city editor, and managing editor before leaving for the Daily News.
A lifelong baseball fan, Mr. Livingston followed the Cubs as a kid in Chicago, the Dodgers as a teen in Los Angeles, and the Phillies after joining the Daily News. He worked as a teenage usher at Dodger Stadium, kept the score book for his high school team in Arcadia, went to World Series games at Veterans Stadium, and, even as his health declined, watched every inning of every game he could find on TV.
“When he was young,” his wife said, “he would listen on the radio at night and go from game to game.”
Born March 22, 1948, in Chicago, Thomas Eugene Livingston moved with his family to Toledo, Ohio, and then to Los Angeles. He earned a bachelor’s degree in history and an alumni award for student leadership at what is now Claremont McKenna College in California, and kicked off his publishing career at his high school and college papers and as a freelance reporter for local weeklies.
He married Jacqueline Bigar in 1970, and they had a son, Geoff, and a daughter, Joanne. After a divorce, he met Maxine Waber through a personal ad in Philadelphia Magazine, and they married in 1989, and lived in Abington Township.
Mr. Livingston enjoyed traveling with his wife, card games, Scrabble, and baseball board games. He played the piano, listened to all kinds of music, especially rock, and watched dozens of operas on TV during the COVID-19 pandemic.
He was a vocal champion of the First Amendment, a volunteer poll watcher, and a docent at the National Constitution Center. In 1977, he was an active union leader during a newspaper strike.
“He was loving and caring to his family and friends,” his wife said. His son said: “He was passionate about the people he loved.”
In addition to his wife and children, Mr. Livingston is survived by two grandchildren, a brother, and other relatives. His former wife died earlier.
Visitation with the family is to be at 10 a.m. Sunday, Sept. 28, at Goldsteins’ Rosenberg’s Funeral Directors, 6410 N. Broad St., Philadelphia, Pa. 19126. A celebration of his life is to follow at 11.