Long-time pro­fes­sor Terry Hig­gins pro­vides for the future

By Jen­nifer Telles

Terry Hig­gins

Hav­ing served almost forty years at Wes­ley Col­lege, Terry Hig­gins, fac­ulty emer­i­tus and for­mer envi­ron­men­tal sci­ence pro­fes­sor, knows the impor­tance of giv­ing back to the insti­tu­tion that played such a sig­nif­i­cant role in his life. While com­plet­ing his master’s degree at Edin­boro Uni­ver­sity, he received a call from Wesley’s pres­i­dent, Dr. Robert Parker, invit­ing him to inter­view for a fac­ulty posi­tion at the Col­lege. Sur­prised, since he had not applied for the posi­tion, Hig­gins gra­ciously accepted the invi­ta­tion, inter­viewed and agreed to join the fac­ulty in what would become the ideal career oppor­tu­nity. The native of north­west­ern Penn­syl­va­nia began his career at Wes­ley in 1961 and served as a fac­ulty mem­ber until his retire­ment in 2000.

Through­out his years of teach­ing, Hig­gins col­lected many fond mem­o­ries. Serv­ing over 8,000 under­grad­u­ates dur­ing his tenure, Hig­gins was always impressed with the qual­ity of indi­vid­u­als that attended Wes­ley. “Just to see them grow and develop, that’s the most grat­i­fy­ing thing you can wit­ness,” said Hig­gins. “I had the unique oppor­tu­nity to teach and react with, and help grow, some of the bright­est and best that our nation can produce.”

Hig­gins con­sid­ers many of his for­mer col­leagues at Wes­ley to have been essen­tial in nur­tur­ing and refin­ing him into who he is today. Senior pro­fes­sors includ­ing Louie Wells, Mr. and Mrs. Kilby, Mr. Stew­art, Dick Titus and Pres­i­dent Parker all had an inte­gral part in men­tor­ing the young new­comer in his first years as a fac­ulty mem­ber. Hig­gins attrib­utes his long stint at the Col­lege to these and other pro­fes­sors includ­ing Elaine Wright, Sam and Mar­i­lyn John­son, Barry Reber, Jim Went­worth and Ron Starnes who made the Wes­ley expe­ri­ence so com­fort­able for him.

Know­ing how Wes­ley so pos­i­tively influ­enced his life, Hig­gins is eager to rec­i­p­ro­cate the favor. He stated, “It’s the old bib­li­cal quo­ta­tion — ‘To those who have been given much, much is expected.’” Hig­gins decided to include Wes­ley Col­lege in his will to aid in secur­ing Wesley’s legacy as a lib­eral church-related col­lege for years to come.

Pro­fes­sor Hig­gins guides stu­dents through a lab exper­i­ment in 1961.

Hig­gins has an addi­tional con­nec­tion to Wes­ley Col­lege in that his three chil­dren, Matthew, Rebecca and Kirsten, are all envi­ron­men­tal sci­ence grad­u­ates of the Col­lege. Each has con­tin­ued to build a suc­cess­ful career in the envi­ron­men­tal field and has shown appre­ci­a­tion to Wes­ley through var­i­ous annual gifts. The Hig­gins fam­ily demon­strates their tes­ta­ment to the Wes­ley mis­sion by giv­ing back to the Col­lege and its pro­grams. They often attend College-sponsored events, includ­ing Home­com­ing. Youngest daugh­ter Kirsten Hig­gins ’98 is now proudly serv­ing on the Alumni Asso­ci­a­tion Board of Directors.

Hig­gins advised, “Giv­ing is each person’s pre­rog­a­tive. No four year edu­ca­tion is per­fect, but edu­ca­tion — both for­mal edu­ca­tion in the class­room and what one gets as being a mem­ber of a col­lege envi­ron­ment — is the one thing in life that can­not be taken from you. One needs to be very thank­ful for the oppor­tu­nity for edu­ca­tion and sac­ri­fices peo­ple made for that edu­ca­tion — not only par­ents and fam­ily but every­one involved with the college.”

To learn more about how you can include Wes­ley Col­lege in your will or other ways to give, please visit www.weare.wesley.edu/waystogive W