Edwin Stanley Higgins

1925 - 2024

Edwin Stanley Higgins

March 12, 1925 - December 26, 2024

Edwin Stanley Higgins, 99, of Richmond, VA, entered eternal life on December 26, 2024. Stan was born in 1925, in Brooklyn, NY, the last of four children of John and Nettie Higgins. In World War II, he served in the Southwest Pacific Theater from 1943 to 1946 as a combat medic and Sherman tank crewman. He returned to civilian life as a laboratory technologist, and was accepted to Alfred University which then led to his Ph.D. degree in Biochemistry from Syracuse University Medical Center in 1956. A thirty-six year career as a professor of biochemistry at the Medical College of Virginia (later VCU) followed with a final distinction as Professor Emeritus of Biochemistry and Molecular Biophysics in 1991. There in Richmond, he met Barbara Jean Wilson, his beloved soul mate, whom he married in 1958. He was preceded in death by two infant sisters; his brother, John; and by his wife in 2021. Survivors include three children, Elizabeth Plunkett (Ted), James (Cathy), and Glenn; grandchildren, Bryan Plunkett, Scott Plunkett (Susan), Matthew Higgins (Maria), and Emma Higgins; and great-granddaughter, Claire Plunkett; a nephew, John Higgins (Suellen); and a niece, Susan McSween (Allen). Stan was a research director for the VA Dept. of Health Bureau of Alcohol Studies and Rehabilitation (1959 to 1973). He served as Assistant Dean, Basic Health Sciences and Graduate Studies, and Executive Secretary, MCV Institutional Research Advisory Committee. His research resulted in nearly one hundred publications, book chapters, and biographical listings. He was a founding member of the 1992 General Assembly's Presbyterian Association of Science and Technology and the Christian Faith. He served as an elder and clerk of session at Trinity Presbyterian Church for 30 years.

A memorial service will be held at Westminster Canterbury Richmond on January 24, 2025, at 2 p.m. Memorial contributions may be made to Pastoral Care or to the Westminster Canterbury Richmond Foundation, 1600 Westbrook Ave., Richmond, VA 23227.

Woody Funeral Home - Atlee