Physician. World War I Soldier. He was the son of William P. Higgins and Mary Cunneen and attended Sayre High School. At the age of 23, he received his medical degree from Georgetown University in 1913. He married Eileen Cecelia O'Donnell, the sister of a Georgetown classmate. During World War I, he was a 1st Lieutenant in the United States Army Medical Corps. His practice in Sayre included midnight drives to farm houses to deliver babies. Later he became the head of pediatrics at the Robert Packer Hospital in Sayre. In 1933 while the Packer Hospital fell to fire, Higgins and colleague Dr. David Taylor worked by flashlight to deliver a baby girl to Mr. and Mrs. Ray Lewis of Sayre. He was also a Diplomate of the American Society of Pediatricians. Among his friends and colleagues were Dr. Donald Guthrie of the Guthrie Clinic and Dr. Waldo E. Nelson, editor of the Nelson Handbook of Pediatrics. For decades until his death, he continued to deliver babies in the Athens, Sayre, and Waverly in the Valley. His erratic driving habits kept citizens of Sayre on their toes, and anywhere he parked his car, whether it should have been parked there or not, became "Dr. Higgins's parking space." In 1962 he was elected president of the First National Bank of Sayre recently. The Maternity Ward of the Packer Hospital in Sayre and Higgins Street in Sayre were named in his honor. Higgins and his wife had three daughters, one of whom was still-born and is also buried in Epiphany Cemetery. I was lucky enough to have married one of his granddaughters. She became a doctor too.
Physician. World War I Soldier. He was the son of William P. Higgins and Mary Cunneen and attended Sayre High School. At the age of 23, he received his medical degree from Georgetown University in 1913. He married Eileen Cecelia O'Donnell, the sister of a Georgetown classmate. During World War I, he was a 1st Lieutenant in the United States Army Medical Corps. His practice in Sayre included midnight drives to farm houses to deliver babies. Later he became the head of pediatrics at the Robert Packer Hospital in Sayre. In 1933 while the Packer Hospital fell to fire, Higgins and colleague Dr. David Taylor worked by flashlight to deliver a baby girl to Mr. and Mrs. Ray Lewis of Sayre. He was also a Diplomate of the American Society of Pediatricians. Among his friends and colleagues were Dr. Donald Guthrie of the Guthrie Clinic and Dr. Waldo E. Nelson, editor of the Nelson Handbook of Pediatrics. For decades until his death, he continued to deliver babies in the Athens, Sayre, and Waverly in the Valley. His erratic driving habits kept citizens of Sayre on their toes, and anywhere he parked his car, whether it should have been parked there or not, became "Dr. Higgins's parking space." In 1962 he was elected president of the First National Bank of Sayre recently. The Maternity Ward of the Packer Hospital in Sayre and Higgins Street in Sayre were named in his honor. Higgins and his wife had three daughters, one of whom was still-born and is also buried in Epiphany Cemetery. I was lucky enough to have married one of his granddaughters. She became a doctor too.
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