Arthur Lloyd Higbee

6/26/1925 - 8/9/2022

Stonington - Arthur Lloyd Higbee, foreign correspondent, died Aug. 9, 2022, in his nursing home, Rouillon, France, of heart failure. He was 97 years old, and had contended for years with chronic heart disease, family members said.

Higbee spent most of his career with United Press International. He covered the Algerian war for independence from France, Gamal Abdel Nasser's failed efforts to unite the Arab countries, Japan's rise from postwar ruin to industrial preeminence, and the American withdrawal from the Vietnam War, among other events. He had aspired to be a foreign correspondent from his high school days. He called himself a competent professional but not a media star. He says in his 660-page "Recollections:" "I realized early on that the truly great journalists are those who eat and breathe their work every waking minute. For better or worse, not I. I was more than a mere time server. I had my share of insights and news beats scoops. I went in harm's way when I had to, although I didn't pretend to enjoy it. When great events were transpiring, I got as wrapped up in them as anyone. But when the crisis was over, I wanted to enjoy life. And so I did."

Arthur Higbee was born June 26, 1925, in Chicago, Ill., to Arthur L. Higbee, M.D. and Harriet Pleasant (Fawcett) Higbee. He grew up in Detroit. He served in the United States Navy during World War II as a radio operator aboard an LST (Landing Ship, Tank). Higbee liked the old joke that LST actually stood for Large Stationary Target. He graduated from the University of Michigan in 1949, with a degree in American history. "My generation of journalists didn't believe in journalism schools." But, he spent most of his waking hours as a reporter and editor for the university newspaper, The Michigan Daily. He went to work first as a reporter for the Port Huron (Michigan) Times Herald (circulation 28,000) and then in UPI bureaus in Detroit (1950-1953), London (1953-1955), Paris (1955-1960), Cairo (1960-1962), and Tokyo (1962-1964). He joined Newsweek in 1964, as a writer for the foreign news section. He also was Newsweek's correspondent in Beirut from 1965 to 1967. He rounded out his career as a copy editor at the now-defunct International Herald Tribune in Paris. He was married three times, to Eda Michel (1961-1964, divorced, no children), Donelle Patton (1973-2004, divorced, two children) and Gladys Garner Leithauser (2004-2010, who predeceased him, no children.) Late in life, he found an old friend from Paris days 50 years before, Alice W. Houston, of Stonington. They made a pledge of commitment, spending summers in Stonington and the rest of the year in Paris, With the advent of the pandemic, they moved permanently to Stonington.

He is survived by his ex-wife, Donelle Patton Higbee of Vienna, Austria, and their two children, Diana Blythe Cadot-Higbee (Laurent) and Michael Patton Higbee (Rissa), his life partner, Alice Watson Houston, and by four grandchildren. For further information: Alice W. Houston, 860-535-4199; or Michael Higbee, 646-554-4932.