Walter Ross Livingston was born October 14, 1893, in Iberia, Missouri. He received the A. B. degree in 1919 from Knox College in Galesburg, Illinois. He took the A. M. degree at the University of Missouri in 1920 and his Ph.D. in history at the University of Wisconsin in 1927.

Livingston served in the U. S. Army during World War I. After earning his master's degree, Livingston was employed at Pomona College in California, from 1920 to 1923 before accepting a graduate fellowship at the University of Wisconsin, where he studied under Winfred T. Root. Root was appointed head of the History Department at the State University of Iowa in 1925 and recruited Livingston to join the SUI faculty that same year. Livingston taught Canadian history during his first semester and soon included courses in American history and foreign relations, as well as the British Empire and commonwealth. He was instrumental in building a collection of British government publications at the University of Iowa Libraries. During 1943 to 1947, he was on leave while serving as Captain, then Major, then Lt. Colonel in the U.S. Army Eighth Air Forces in Europe. During this leave, he was promoted to full professor at SUI. He also served on the board of trustees of the Iowa Unitarian Association during the first half of the 1950s. Livingston retired from SUI in 1962 and was employed as a visiting professor at several colleges and universities over the next decade, including the University of California at Los Angeles during 1965-1966 and the California State College in Long Beach in 1968.

Livingston married Mary Zella Bear in 1920 and the couple had three daughters, Jean, Yvonne, and Irene. Jean served with the Women's Air Service Pilots for 18 months during 1943 to 1944. W. Ross Livingston died December 30, 1978.