Giants in the making
“We ended our time together committed to staying connected to one another and to using what we learned to make Austin, Texas, and the world a better place to live. And we have kept that promise by working on the City Council, in the State Legislature, in the courts, in nonprofit organizations, in churches, in our neighborhoods, and in many other arenas.”
Lora found love in her cohort marrying an Essential classmate.
In the words of The Honorable Lora Livingston (Essential 21 – 2000):
I am a proud member of Leadership Austin’s Best Class Ever, the class affectionately nicknamed Y2K because we were the class at the turn of the new century. I’m Judge Lora Livingston and I want to thank and congratulate Leadership Austin for 40 amazing years of excellence.
Y2K was an exciting and anxious time in Austin and around the world. Many people feared the world’s computers would stop working and that the economy and communications systems would collapse. Well, the world did not go dark and Leadership Austin helped shed light on that and many other pressing issues of the day.
My Leadership Austin class was as diverse as the larger community and full of community giants (some who were giants when they arrived and some who became giants after graduation). I remain impressed by the diversity of occupations, hobbies and other interests, as well as the geographic and ethnic diversity of our class.
Ours was a class of big thinkers with big ideas and the willingness to lead others in the right direction. We ended our time together committed to staying connected to one another and to using what we learned to make Austin, Texas, and the world a better place to live. And we have kept that promise by working on the City Council, in the State Legislature, in the courts, in nonprofit organizations, in churches, in our neighborhoods, and in many other arenas.
During our first class session, we were told our classmates would become our new best friends. I am proud to say that I built many lasting relationships with my Y2K classmates. In fact, many years after graduation, I even married one of them!
– The Honorable Lora J. Livingston served as a judge for 28 years, retiring as a Travis County district judge.
