James “Jimmy” Higgins, a foreman on the Lincoln Center campus facilities team who joined Fordham in 2016 and quickly made himself an indispensable member of the department, died suddenly on Jan. 13. He was 54 years old.
John McDonagh, director of facilities operations at Lincoln Center, said Higgins was a natural-born leader who possessed a broad, expansive knowledge of the construction trades that he eagerly shared with others.
“He always took control of a situation—emergencies, anything. If you had an issue, you called him, and he’d get it taken care of,” he said.
“The guy knew everything from carpentry and plumbing to electrical and welding. His skill set was unrivaled.”
Higgins was born on October 27, 1970, to Tom and Gail Higgins and grew up in the shadow of the Throgs Neck Bridge in the Bronx neighborhood of Silver Beach. He graduated from Monsignor Scanlan High School in Throgs Neck in 1988.
He trained as a plumber and worked in maintenance and facilities positions for Maritime College and Mill Neck Manor School for the Deaf. He came to Fordham in 2016 after two years working as a plumber mechanic for the Hicksville School District in Long Island.
Just three years later, he was honored with a Sursum Corda award at the University’s annual convocation. He was lauded as one of the most valued members of the Facilities Department “because of his energetic approach to sharing his skills and knowledge with his colleagues.”
“Over the past few years, Jimmy has been at the forefront of several significant and unforeseen plumbing incidents, and it was his problem-solving abilities that were instrumental in helping the department in resolving those events,” his citation read.
Higgins met his wife, Christine, a teacher at Mill Neck Manor, while supervising the construction of a new building there. She said she was attracted to him because of his troubleshooting skills, his sense of humor, and his “honest, true love of kids and people.”
“He was a quiet genius when it came to fixing and building anything imaginable,” she said. “He was always kind, always helpful, and went out of his way for others.”
True to his maritime roots, Christine said he enjoyed fishing and relaxing with friends and family on boats, as well as bow hunting. Colleagues might not know that he was also an avid reader, she said.
She said she’d always treasure their time trekking up to a cabin in knee-deep snow in Hancock, New York, listening to Irish music on Sundays on WFUV’s Ceol na nGael, and listening to John Denver.
“He was a mentor to so many people without realizing it,” she said.
McDonagh, who attended high school with Higgins’s older brother Tom, considered him a friend for the past 30 years. He said he will miss the daily morning meetings where they’d discuss how to tackle the pressing project of the day on campus.
“Jimmy was a person who I could walk through campus and bounce technical ideas off of him,” he said.
“In our field, it’s a very precious thing to be able to trust somebody and have these conversations. That is something I’ll miss more than anything. I looked forward to those sessions every day.”
Higgins is survived by his wife, Christine, his first wife Karen, his brother Tom, his sister Ellen, and his children James and Jamie.
A wake will be held on Thursday, Jan. 16, from 3 to 7 p.m. at Schuyler Hill Funeral Home, 3535 E. Tremont Avenue in the Bronx. A funeral Mass will be held on Friday, Jan. 17, at 10 a.m. at St. Frances de Chantel Church, 90 Hollywood Avenue.
