Lawrence Livornese

Lawrence Louis Livornese of Martinsville, NJ passed away peacefully after a brief illness with his wife of almost 70 years Joan (née Hembrooke) at his side at NYU Langone Mineola. Lawrence was born in Brooklyn, New York to Salvador and Edna (née Iuppa). A child of the Great Depression, he was the second person in his family to go to high school and he graduated from Bayside High School. Through commitments to the United States Army, he and his older brother George were both able to attend Fordham University as classmates where they graduated simultaneously with a Bachelor of Science after which they both attended Georgetown Medical School. Following graduation, Lawrence served an internship at Georgetown followed by residency in internal medicine and a fellowship in pulmonary medicine at NYU Downstate. He then served as a Captain in the United States Army from 1959-1961 where he practiced pulmonary medicine with a particular emphasis on tuberculosis. In 1955, he married his only love Joan, and in 1964 they moved to Martinsville, New Jersey where they resided for the rest of their lives. Upon leaving the Army, he opened a medical practice in Middlesex, New Jersey and worked at Somerset Medical Center where he served as the Medical Staff President, the Medical Director of Quality and he formed their first ethics committee. He was also on staff at the former Middlesex Hospital in New Brunswick. Due to his proximity to the Johns Manville plant, he identified and published the first medical report linking industrial asbestos exposure to the deadly cancer, mesothelioma. His Jesuit education impacted his adult life by fostering a rigorous intellectual curiosity as well as a belief in service to others. Throughout his life he and Joan supported and took on leadership roles in multiple organizations including the Bridgewater athletic club, the Boy Scouts of America and the Glenburnie Club at his beloved Lake George where he served as President and a board member for many years. Lawrence and Joan volunteered, and Joan continues for FISH (Friends in Serving Humanity). For several decades Joan and he would spend several weeks every year living in a trailer and volunteering in the Tutwiler Clinic in Mississippi caring for the medically underserved in one of the poorest counties in the US. Lifelong members of Martinsville’s Blessed Sacrament Church, they volunteered in many roles and taught Pre-Cana classes for many years. While working in a tuberculosis clinic, Lawrence recognized the impact that illicit drug use had upon his patients and he conceptualized and founded a free standing drug rehabilitation clinic in Somerville for which he served as the medical director for over 40 years. In 1999, he was appointed by the Governor to the New Jersey Board of Medical Examiners Medical Practitioner Review Panel, which reviews physician care in the state, and he worked and remained committed to this panel’s mission until the time of his death. Lawrence loved to work outdoors and was an avid do-it-yourselfer. Neighbors would often find him planting, weeding and trimming trees at is beloved Lake George. He was an insatiable reader of both history, the medical literature and fiction. For the latter, he and Joan started a family tradition of leaving a grade and often a brief editorial comment on the inside cover to guide the next reader. Due to an inner-city program at the New York Athletic Club, he learned to play squash which he continued at the collegiate level and beyond. He was a life-long fan of the New York Giants. Growing up he was also a Brooklyn Dodgers fan and loved to share stories such as watching from seats on the third base line in Ebbets Field as Jackie Robinson danced back and forth before he stole home base. He was crushed in 1957 when the Dodgers moved to Los Angeles; he never followed baseball again and it was only very late in life that he even considered forgiving Dodgers’ owner Walter O’Malley. He and Joan enjoyed a vacation home on Lake George in New York. He loved to spend time there playing bocce, swimming, snorkeling, sailing and cross-country skiing with a multitude of friends, siblings, children, in-laws, grandchildren, great-grandchildren, nieces, nephews and cousins galore. In 1965, he began running Monday-Friday, beginning an unwavering daily ritual which he continued the rest of his life - only pausing on Christmas morning and when the temperature dropped below 20 degrees when he would then run indoors. At age 65 he took up scuba diving and for the next 20 years took regular trips to the Caribbean with friends to pursue this activity; he would send diving pictures to his family with captions such as “spending your inheritance at 65 feet, age 79”. Lawrence was predeceased by his brother George. He is survived by his sister Edna Rowan; children Kathi Livornese and husband Jan Koenig of Dix Hills NY, Lawrence and his wife Marilyn Howarth of Gladwyne PA, Richard and his wife Michele of Ringoes, NJ, and Doug and his wife Mary Walter of Monmouth Beach, NJ; grandchildren Lawrence and his wife Serin Seckin of Brooklyn, Kathleen (Katie) Livornese and her husband Jason Lefever of Philadelphia, and Michael Livornese of Philadelphia; Richard and Danielle Livornese of Ringoes, NJ; great-grandchildren Lara and Peri Livornese of Brooklyn. Mass of Christian burial will be celebrated on February 14th at the Blessed Sacrament Church 1890 Washington Valley Road, Martinsville, NJ at 11:00 am. https://blessedsacramentnj.org/. All are welcome to join his family for a repast afterwards. We invite you to join us as we gather to celebrate the life of Lawrence Louis Livornese with Love, Laughter and Libations, Saturday March 22nd. Time & place to be determined. Please contact email us at Lifecelebration@lihq.com (or contact one of us) if you would like to help us celebrate a life well lived In lieu of flowers remembrances may be made to: PLEASE NO Flowers. Donations may be made to the following organizations: Samaritans Purse https://www.samaritanspurse.org/our-ministry/donate-online/ Lake George Land Conservatory https://lglc.org/make-a-donation/ Department of Orthopedic Surgery NYU Grossman Long Island School of Medicine https://giving.nyulangone.org/site/TR/DIY/General?px=1223189&pg=personal&fr_id=1210

Lawrence Livornese

August 26, 1929 - January 30, 2025