Cheri Livingston Memorial Scholarship

Rich Livingston is establishing this scholarship in loving memory of his wife Cheri. She was a 30-year Early Childhood Educator with the last 20 years in the Mesa County Valley School District 51.

Cheryl B. Livingston was born February 12, 1946. She was raised on a farm north of Crestview in the panhandle of Florida. She started school as a five (5) year old first grader as the rural school needed students to stay open!

Cheri was an honors graduate of Crestview High School and enrolled at Florida State University in the Fall of 1963. At the advanced age of 17 she learned about dorm life, the cafeteria food plan and life away from the farm. She elected to pursue a degree in education which became a passion in her life second only to her family and her love of animals.

At age 19 she married J. Richard Livingston and at age 20 graduated and became an elementary school teacher. She and Richard moved to Madison, Wisconsin in 1967 when he was accepted into graduate school and she was hired as an elementary school teacher. From there Richard’s military service took her to Michigan, Oregon, and Colorado. In 1972 the family returned to Tallahassee with two (2) little boys in tow for Richard to attend law school.

In 1975 the family moved to Grand Junction, CO, where she returned to teaching. She now had a master’s degree in early childhood education earned while Richard was in law school. She ended her teaching career as a kindergarten teacher at Shelledy Elementary in Fruita, CO in School District 51 without ever losing her interest and passion for education of young children.