Ronald E. Higby

Higby, Ronald E. SAN DIEGO -- Ronald E Higby, beloved husband, father, and grandfather, passed away on September 1, 2013. He was 82 years old. At the time of his passing he was surrounded by his family in his long-time San Diego home where finally he succumbed to a fatal lung ailment that he'd fought courageously for many years. His remains were laid to rest at Miramar National Cemetary. Born just outside of Boston, Massachusetts in the summer of 1931, he was an academic scholar at Arlington High School where he met the love of his life, Marion Scott, who became his wife of 60 years and best friend of more than 67 years. After studying on a scholarship at Harvard University for his first year of college he opted to enlist in the United States Air Force during the Korean War where he would spend most of the next four years in the South Pacific, eventually landing at Hunter AFB near Savannah, Georgia. After an honorable discharge from the Air Force with the rank of Staff Sergeant, he attended and graduated from University of Massachusetts Amherst where he obtained a degree in Electrical Engineering. It was this academic choice that would lead him on a career path with such companies as MITRE, Hughes Aircraft, and Logicon. And though based in San Diego, a city he loved so passionately, his work would take him around the world to such extreme locales as Iceland and Saudi Arabia, as well as a two year stint in Brussels Belgium where he served as a liaison to NATO in the early 1970's. Known for both his generosity and dry sense of humor he was a man who had a great impact on those he surrounded himself with. He is survived by his wife Marion, sons Scott and David, and daughter Nancy Gilbert. He also leaves behind a grandson, two granddaughters, a sister, a brother, and a host of friends for whom his absence will be greatly felt.