Obituary of David Higgins

David Higgins IV, 91, of Seaville, NJ, died peacefully on Thursday, May 8, 2014 at home with his daughter and son-in-law by his side. He was a direct descendant (10th generation) of Richard Higgins who landed at Plymouth, MA in 1623. His Mayflower line is traced to John Howland and his wife, Elizabeth Tilley, Mayflower passengers. He was the son of the late Gilbert H. and Margaret H. Higgins, very early settlers of Mountain Lakes, NJ where he was born May 25, 1922. He was the oldest living native son of Mountain Lakes. He formerly lived in Bethel and Southbury, CT and Gaithersburg, MD. He attended St. John's school (now the Wilson School). He graduated from Montclair Academy in 1939 and the U.S. Military Academy (West Point) with a BS degree in engineering in 1945 and received a MSEE degree from Purdue University in 1952. He served in the U.S. Army (1945-1956) with assignments in the army of Occupation (Germany), later as Executive Officer, Ordnance section, Berlin Command, and four years with the U.S. Nuclear weapons program (Manhattan Engineer District). He worked as an engineer with Calculon Corp. for seven years before retiring in 1984 and for several other companies before then. He worked for H & R Block for 22 years as a tax return preparer, instructor, and office supervisor until 2002. He attended the Citizens Military Training Camp program in the summers of 1939 and 1940. He joined the volunteer aircraft spotter's organization in Mountain Lakes during 1942. He was a former member of the Mountain Lakes Fire Historical Society and Heritage Village (Southbury, CT) Amateur Radio Club. He was a member of the Upper Township (Seaville) Emergency Management Office, the Society of Mayflower Descendants, and the New Jersey Historical Society. He held a Federal Communications Commission Advanced class amateur radio license with the call sign of K1BCG. He provided considerable material for inclusion in the book Mountain Lakes 1911-2011: One Hundred Years of Community. He was predeceased by his loving wife of 58 years, Margaret, in 2003; a daughter Carolyn Danion in 1996; two brothers, Dudley in 1995 and Gilbert, Jr. KIA WW II in 1945; and a sister Alma Daniel in 2006. He is survived by his daughter Peggy Lee Houghtalin and her husband Paul of New Milford, CT; five grandchildren (Michael and his wife Katharine, Paul, Robert Houghtalin; and Eric and Elizabeth Danion); five great grandchildren, his sister Catherine Ettenger of Garden City, SC, and fourteen nieces and nephews. Services and Internment were held privately at Greenwood Cemetery in Boonton in the Higgins family plot beside his beloved Peggy. Arrangements entrusted to the Codey & Mackey Funeral Home, Boonton, NJ. To share a memory or extend condolences, please visit www.codeymackeyfh.com.