Irene Livengood ’39

Irene Livengood ’39, of Iowa City, Iowa, died Jan. 11, 2020, at age 102.

Livengood was born in Milledgeville, Illinois, and graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Cornell College with a degree in biology. She completed her year of clinical laboratory training at Illinois Central Hospital in Chicago in 1940, where she was employed in the department of chemistry.

In 1942 she enlisted in Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service (WAVES), but the Navy determined she was more valuable in a civilian capacity. She applied for a position at the University of Chicago and was transferred to the National Cancer Institute in Bethesda, Maryland, with a team testing animal exposure to radiation. She suspected the research was for a bomb and left the project, later realizing it was part of the Manhattan Project.

Since her interests were in clinical studies rather than research, Livengood returned to the Illinois Central Hospital as supervisor of the laboratory. In 1969 she moved to Cedar Rapids, Iowa, and was the education coordinator for St. Luke’s Hospital Clinical Laboratory Service Program until her retirement in 1984. After retirement she continued at St. Luke’s as a volunteer in the Health Science Library.

She was a 65-year member of the American Society of Clinical Laboratory Service, a 60-year member of PEO, and a member of Trinity Episcopal Church in Iowa City.

Her survivors include her cousins, their children, and her sister-in-law.