Bruce Higley

Bruce Higley was born in Wilkinsburg, Pennsylvania to Robert and Janet Collins Higley on July 9, 1941. He grew up in Clarence, NY with five younger siblings. His skills in woodworking began at a young age when his father engaged his assistance as their home needed enlarging. In 1952, Bruce and his mother contracted polio which rapidly took her life and left Bruce significantly challenged. He was able to attend a specialized public school in Buffalo where he received hours of daily physical therapy for two years. His was a success story with polio, playing racquetball and softball into his forties, while sailing and skiing until age 75. At the end of his life speaking of his recovery he said, “Each one of those seventy-three years was a gift.”

Bruce received two degrees in electrical engineering, a BSEE from Clarkson College and an MSEE from Penn State. He went to work for American Electric Power in lower Manhattan while in his second year of graduate school. He remained living and working in NYC for seven years, during which time he met and married his wife of 57 years, Kathleen (Kate) Kimmel.

The couple left New York City and moved to small farm in Windsor, Maine in 1970, when Bruce was hired by Central Maine Power. Along with transmission planning, he kept a small flock of sheep, even learning to shear them. The couple’s daughter, Sidney Jane, was born in 1971 and a son, Jason Robert, in 1973.

At the end of 1977, the family moved to Saudi Arabia where Bruce began seven years working for The Arabian American Oil Company. He was engaged in planning the electrical grid for the Eastern Province and during his final two years, as Superintendent of Operations, ran the system he had designed. It was in Arabia when he began his serious interest in fine woodworking. Those years were one of extensive travel, as well.

In 1984, they returned home and settled in New Hampshire. Bruce moved from engineering to teaching and began a second career in private schools.

He worked four years at Kent School in Connecticut and ten at National Cathedral School in Washington, DC, with other short-term positions along the way. Bruce enjoyed teaching physics and was beloved by his students. He also served as faculty representative on the board of National Cathedral School.

In 2004, he left DC and returned to the couple’s home in Wolfeboro, NH where he became more involved in the design and construction of tables, taking on commissions. When Kate retired from teaching art to join him in 2007, they spent ten years skiing and sailing in the Lakes Region. Having visited thirty-two countries, they took two extensive camping trips to tour national parks in 2011 and 2014.

In 2017, the couple found a new home in Eliot, Maine with two small barns, a woodworking shop and art studio.

Along with his wife, Bruce leaves a daughter, Sidney Jane Norledge, and her husband Brian, a son, Jason Higley, and his wife, Erika, and three grandchildren whom he loved very much, Theodore Norledge, Violet Higley, and Stella Higley. His brother William Higley predeceased him. He leaves three sisters, Barbara Wilkins, Susan Agrasto and Nancy Higley Ball, and a brother, Keith Higley.

He asked that the family tell all who knew him that he died a happy man.