Vivan was the last of six children born to John and Lydia Richmond of Wyanet, Illinois, and was born May 3, 1910 in Concord Township, Bureau County, Illinois. He attended the local schools in Wyanet and graduated from Wyanet High School in 1927.
He and Anna Eckberg were married in Havana, Illinois, after they eloped on October 7, 1933. Early in their marriage he and Anna lived in a tent alongside a creek working for saw mill employees. They later moved to Wyanet where Vivan worked for a while with the County Highway Department.
For most of his life Vivan worked as a carpenter for a local building company in Walnut until he retired at age 50 when he lost his vision to an untreatable eye disease. During his years as a carpenter he disassembled a house in the country and rebuilt it in Wyanet.
His interests included playing the violin, and he played the "fiddle" in a square dance band every Saturday night for about five years. He was also involved with the Boy Scouts for a number of years, even after losing his son, Delmar, to a drowning accident at a Boy Scout camp. He also enjoyed travel, so much so that his family joked that he kept a suitcase packed in case anyone asked him to go anywhere.
Vivan was a good listener and remembered the things he heard. Anna's mother, Ida Eckberg, rarely talked about her early days in Sweden, but Vivan talked with her about those days and recorded the information in his wonderful collection of her memories which he entitled "Reflections of Sweden" which is found in these pages.
After his retirement, and after he became blind, Vivan remained active. He belonged to a tape club and corresponded by audio tape with people all over the world. He also amazed his friends and family by taking up woodworking, which he did primarily by feel. Despite his blindness, he was able to use a lathe to make candlesticks, bowls, wishing wells and other wooden items which he gave to relatives and friends as gifts.
He and Anna continued to live in their home in Wyanet, caring for each other, until Vivan's death from a heart attack on November 23, 1985. He was buried in Forrest Hill Cemetery in Wyanet, Illinois.
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