In the sunset years of his life, Dick Higgins was fond of telling people that he was a true survivor.

It was no idle boast. He had lived through the Dust Bowl and the Great Depression. He was a witness to the Dec. 7, 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor and lived to share the tale. He fought in World War II. He got COVID-19 when he was 99 and survived that, too.

But early Tuesday morning, time caught up with Higgins, who died at home in Bend. He was 102.

The blessing of a long life, of being a survivor, comes with a curse that’s rarely mentioned and it was so for Higgins. He outlived just about everyone he ever knew, including Winnie Ruth, his wife of 60 years, who died in 2004. But when Higgins slipped from this world at 1:42 a.m. Tuesday, he wasn’t alone. Three generations of his family were together in the home he shared with his granddaughter, Angela Norton, her husband and her two children, 9-year-old Josiah and 5-year-old Noelle.

Norton was by his side when he took his last breath.

“It was really special last night,” Norton told The Bulletin. “The whole family was there sitting with him, talking, sharing stories and playing music.”

Higgins wasn’t ill, but his body was giving up. His family noticed his mood had changed and he wasn’t his usual cheerful self. Early last week, he woke up one morning in terrible pain and could no longer move. He remained in bed and was cared for by a hospice nurse.

His family holds special memories of him playing in the backyard with his great-grandchildren, having tea parties and foot races.

Norton cherishes the time during the pandemic when she would stay home with him, playing cards and hearing stories about his life. That experience led her to help Higgins create an Instagram account in March 2020 — @quarantine_chats_with_gramps — where he posted short videos of his life story.

He collected 744 followers. Norton plans to keep posting on the account.

“He loved to share his stories,” Norton said. “He would talk to anyone about what happened and what he went through.”

Higgins was a fixture at the annual Pearl Harbor remembrance ceremony held each Dec. 7 along the shores of the Deschutes River in Bend’s Brooks Park. He would bundle up in a coat and sit by a space heater.

Last year, he attended a ceremony indoors, at Bend High School, to honor the 82nd anniversary of the attack. He sat in a blue wheelchair in front of a giant American flag and saluted the students and community members.

They gave him a hero’s welcome, asking questions, posing for photos and requesting his autograph. It was his last public appearance.

“I think back on that day and it was so memorable and special to have him be honored that way at Bend High,” Norton said. “It meant so much to our family knowing that was the last time he would be honored for his service at Pearl Harbor.”

Early life, Pearl Harbor

Higgins was born July 24, 1921, near the small town of Mangum, Oklahoma. His parents, Ernest and Lula Elizabeth Higgins, were farmers. They grew cotton, corn and grain and often struggled to make ends meet.

One of Higgins’ childhood memories is seeing the large plumes of dust blanket his town.

“The dust came rolling in on the ground,” Higgins told The Bulletin in 2021. “Street lights came on around noontime because it was so dark.”

Higgins went to high school in a class of 13 students. In December 1939, Higgins enlisted in the Navy and was assigned to an air station in San Diego, where he saw the ocean for the first time. He was 18.

On the morning of the attack on Pearl Harbor, Higgins was a 20-year-old Navy radio operator stationed on Ford Island in the center of the harbor. The roar of Japanese warplanes overhead woke him up and after the first wave of planes had passed, he was put to work salvaging airplanes. Often covered in ash and oil, Higgins worked nonstop for three days.

Higgins met Winnie Ruth McDonald, a nurse, in January 1944 in Lake City, Florida. They were married four months later. They had two children, Jerry, born in 1948, and, Vicki, born 1952.

After his military career, which stretched to 19 years, Higgins spent most of his life in Costa Mesa in Orange County, California. He pursued a career in radio engineering and briefly ran a Winchell’s Donut House in the 1960s. He moved to Bend in 2013.

Throughout his life, Higgins made it a point to honor a promise that Pearl Harbor survivors have championed for decades, even as their ranks dwindled: Remember what happened that day and those who died. Higgins always wore a blue ball cap embroidered with the words “Pearl Harbor Survivor.” When he lived in Orange County, he was president of the local chapter of the Pearl Harbor Survivors Association.

He used to joke he was an endangered species because he was one of the few living Pearl Harbor survivors. There was some truth to that.

Kathleen Farley, the California chapter president with Sons and Daughters of Pearl Harbor Survivors, has tracked their decline. No more than 75 survivors were alive two years ago for the 80th anniversary of the attack.

Now there are 22.

“One by one the Greatest Generation is leaving us,” Farley said Tuesday. “They gave so much of their lives. They all said ‘no, I’m not the hero. The hero is the one who never came home.’”

From Bend to Pearl Harbor

Survivor Dick Higgins finds his place in history

 

Higgins made good on his promise by returning to Pearl Harbor. His first trip was in 1991 with his late wife to mark the 50th anniversary of the attack. He returned six more times in 1996, 2001, 2006, 2011, 2016 and 2021.

Honoring Higgins

The trip in 2021 fulfilled another promise he had made: to return at the age of 100.

Higgins’ daughter Vicki Bolling, of Bend, fondly recalls sitting front and center with her father for the Pearl Harbor remembrance ceremony in the cavernous Kilo Pier at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam. With her hand on his elbow, Higgins was able to stand and salute the dignitaries who were there to salute him.

Of all her memories, what Bolling remembers most is her father’s kindness. She thinks about how he moved to Bend and didn’t know a single person outside his family. A decade later, he is a beloved figure in the city.

“How did this guy impact so many people?” Bolling said Tuesday. “He wasn’t an eloquent speaker. He wasn’t necessarily charismatic. But he was kind and he was that homespun Oklahoma guy who liked to tell his stories and people seemed to respond to that.”

The Bend community will have a chance to honor Higgins one last time at a memorial service Thursday, March 28. A service will be held at 11 a.m. at Eastmont Church followed by a military honor at 1 p.m. at Deschutes Memorial Gardens. Those in attendance are encouraged to wear Hawiian attire, a favorite of Higgins. In lieu of flowers, donations can be made to the Bend Band of Brothers.

Norton knows what Higgins means to the community and wanted to give people a chance to celebrate him together.

“Bend has supported Gramps like nothing else,” Norton said. “As much as he’s my Gramps, he’s everyone’s Gramps.”