Leukemia claimed one of dermatology's most extraordinary leaders, Clarence S. Livingood, MD, on July 27, 1998. Historians will record that Clarence Livingood, along with Donald Pillsbury, Stephen Rothman, and Marion Sulzberger, were the major figures behind the shaping of the specialty of dermatology in America during the middle and final thirds of the 20th century. In his early years, Clarence Livingood achieved a great deal through his research and teaching, but throughout his professional life, his genius and talent were reflected primarily in his remarkable and prodigious efforts in organizational medicine. Diminutive physically, he had a giant's capacity for work and was driven by a strong sense of responsibility for medicine and the specialty of dermatology, which he sustained almost to the moment of his death.