John Allen Livingston (November 10, 1923 – January 17, 2006) was a Canadian naturalist, broadcaster, author, and teacher.[1] He was most known as the voice-over of the Hinterland Who's Who series of television zoological shorts in the 1960s.[2]
Born in Hamilton, Ontario, he enlisted in the Royal Canadian Navy at the beginning of World War II and earned a degree in English literature in 1943 while on active service.[3] He joined the Audubon Society of Canada in 1955 as managing director and editor of its newsletter.[3] He later became head of the science unit at the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC), most notably serving as the first executive producer of the long-running documentary series The Nature of Things.[4] He left the CBC in 1968, but remained an occasional contributor of documentary films to The Nature of Things,[3] most notably the Canadian Film Award-winning Wild Africa in 1970.[5] He then formed LDL: Environmental Research Associates, an environmental consulting company, with Aird Lewis and Bill Gunn of the Nature Conservancy of Canada; the firm became most noted for their work on the Mackenzie Valley Pipeline Inquiry.[3]
Livingston was the author of several books, including The Fallacy of Wildlife Conservation (1981) and the Governor General's Award-winning Rogue Primate (1994).[6] In his later years, he was a professor emeritus of environmental studies at York University.[3]
Selected bibliography
edit- Darwin and the Galapagos (1966) (with Lister Sinclair)
- Birds of the Northern Forest (1966) (with J. F. Lansdowne)
- Arctic Oil (1981)
- The Fallacy of Wildlife Conservation (1981)
- Canada: A Natural History (1988)
- Rogue Primate: An Exploration of Human Domestication (1994)
- One Cosmic Instant (1968)
References
edit- ^ Louise Fabiani, "The greatest environmentalist you've never heard of" Archived October 19, 2021, at the Wayback Machine. Toronto Star, April 8, 2007.
- ^ Randy Boswell, "Original loon vignette found in CBC archive; Hinterland who's who video dates to 1963". Vancouver Sun, July 12, 2013.
- ^ a b c d e Sandra Martin, "John Livingston, naturalist 1923-2006". The Globe and Mail, January 28, 2006.
- ^ David Suzuki, "How a TV series grew and grew: 30th birthday of a program bringing nature to the people". Toronto Star, February 24, 1990.
- ^ "Special to Focus on Game Reserves" Archived October 19, 2021, at the Wayback Machine. Calgary Herald, February 20, 1970. p. 81.
- ^ Ray Conlogue, "Wiebe wins Governor-General's prize: Edmonton author among 14 recipients at elegant Montreal ceremony". The Globe and Mail, November 16, 1994.
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