James Delany Higgins ’48

Jim Higgins, a resident of White Plains, N.Y., died of cancer Oct. 14, 1997.

Jim, who was often called Pinkey, and sometimes referred to himself as Seamus (to honor his Irish heritage), marched to his own drum. Raised on Park Avenue, he was a city boy. At Canterbury School in rural Connecticut, he was alarmed by country sights, sounds, and smells. Athletics were to be followed in the Herald Tribune and were a new experience on the playing fields. He was affectionately regarded by his fellow inmates of a strict prep school.

At Princeton, Jim majored in history and joined Colonial. After graduation, he tried dairy farming in Wyoming. Returning to NYC, he worked at the Ruthrauff Ryan ad agency before becoming a banker in Bogota, Colombia. In 1955, he joined N.Y. Telephone as an engineer. In 1961, he married and had a son. The marriage was soon terminated.

Jim once related (probably apocryphally) that his task at N.Y. Telephone was to assign the same number to a rectory and a bordello. His role was that of a minor prophet, figuring out the company's future needs. In 1987, high technology won; after battling computers for many years, Jim got bopped by a computer that was being moved in his office, and he became a pensioner.

To his son, Ted, and granddaughter, Delany, the class expresses its deepest sympathy at the death of a true original.

The Class of 1948