A memorial for Morgan Livingston

The memorial bench near Gray Wolf Hall.

You walk out from Gray Wolf towards Parks after a busy day. On your left before the University Center office you see a bench with a pot of flowers next to it. It is black and brown in color, with a carving of flowers on the side. There is a plate saying “In Loving Memory of Morgan Livingston.”

Morgan Livingston was a professor for Human Services Professionals and community services at Western Washington University and Human Services 101 at Everett Community College.

A memorial bench for Livingston was installed April 9.

Jennifer Rhodes, director of Student Activities, and her friend Babette Babich coordinated the gathering of funds not long after Livingston passed away.

“The two of us coordinated the actual gathering of the fund. We were the places where they dropped the money off to and there was a group of alumni and current students that were the one that selected the bench and actually did the ordering,” said Rhodes.

By mid-February, around $700 was gathered from approximately 40 people. A group of alumni and current students selected and ordered the bench online.

“We decided to do a bench because Morgan was just a type of person that would do something that is relaxing. She would like to do something that allows people to have a conversation. So, we decided on a bench to honor her and to honor her long-standing effect that she hand on the lives of so many of us here in the campus,” added Rhodes. “We also picked something that was unique in design because she was a very unique person.”

The bench is made of recycled material and is supposed to last for quite a long time.

“Morgan was a very environmentally conscious person. That was the other reason we chose the bench that would be environmentally conscious, just like her,” explained Rhodes.

For Rhodes, the whole action to honor and respect Livingston had a sentimental reason.

“She was my professor, my father’s professor and my husband’s professor. The three of us are graduates of the program,” said Rhodes. “She was a very special person.”

Story and photo by Johan Chandra