Jean May Nockels was born the third of four children to Sidney and Edith Pope Nockels on Sept. 24, 1922, in Colorado Springs. 
They had immigrated from England in 1912. Edith had had the flu and missed sailing on the Titanic, she came four months later the sinking.
Grade school years were spent at Squirrel Creek and Drennan east of Colorado Springs. From there they moved onto the Platte River near Deckers and next east into Jarre Canyon for better access to Castle Rock schools. Jean attended Castle Rock High School and graduated in the Class of 1941.
Jean married Robert Livingston of Monte Vista, then a Staff Sargent in the Army Air Corps. Within a week he was assigned to Trinidad, West Indies, on a submarine patrol during WWII. Jean volunteered with the Red Cross during the war working in military hospitals with injured servicemen. After the war, their son Richard was born when Robert was assigned to Dover Air Force Base in 1946.
They spent two years at Holloman Air Force Base in New Mexico, five years at Boston Arsenal, five years back at Holloman, one year at Hickam Air Force Base in Hawaii and one at Peterson Field in Colorado Springs. After his retirement, they divorced, and Jean and Richard moved to Ft. Collins in 1962 to live with her sister Marjorie who was night ER nurse at PVH.
Jean worked for Catholic Community Services and for CSU as a laboratory assistant in Plant Sciences. She met Adel Kamal, an entomology professor and they subsequently married in London, 1967, when he was working in Nigeria for CSU. She was given a five-star tour of Europe and into the Middle East with a stop in Palestine to meet Adel’s family. From Cairo to Lagos and into the bush at Umuahia where a budding ag college was being set up. The plan was for several years but the Biafrian War cut that to 9 months. They were evacuated in the middle of the night and returned to Ft. Collins with just the clothes they were wearing.
Jean worked on the CSU blood drive for 31 years, her appetite for doing good deeds and contributing to the community was who she was. Her joys in life were her friends, cooking, (especially Arab cuisine), gardening and she was a prolific writer. She gave selflessly as the family caretaker. Adel developed Parkinson’s and a cardiac condition.
Richard moved in at the end of 1999 to assist and after Adel’s passing in 2000, she remained in her house at 608 W. Laurel. She was very active until 2008 when she broke both hips within a year. At this point Richard took over her care. Hospice started in March of this year. She enjoyed her 94th birthday party on September 24th. Jean died in her own bed peacefully and without pain at 9:35 a.m. on Nov. 25th with no unfinished issues. Her presence is still palatable in the house.
Jean is survived by her son, Richard Livingston; brother, Leonard Nockels of Wheatland, Wyo.; sister-in-law Fleta Nockels of Castle Rock and her daughters Edie, Margie and Carolyn.
Preceding Jean in death are her first husband, Robert Livingston and her second husband, Adel Kamal, as well as her parents, Sidney and Edith; and siblings, Marjorie and Jack.
In lieu of flowers please send contributions to the CSU Foundation, Neurologic Music Therapy Exercise Groups, c/o ruth.rice@comcast.net. Jean attended these therapy sessions every Monday morning for five years and they were a major part of her life and continued vitality.
