Rick Higgs:
CLASS OF 1961
Magee High SchoolClass of 1961
Vancouver, BC
Alan Matthews Elementary SchoolClass of 1956
Kamloops, BC
Maple Grove Elementary SchoolClass of 1955
Vancouver, BC
Quilchena Public SchoolClass of 1952
Vancouver, BC
Trafalgar SchoolClass of 1951
Vancouver, BC
Rick's Story
Still out here...in August 2018 & 2022 took part in the ALCAN 5000 Summer Rally (Kirkland, Wash. to Fairbanks, Alaska 2018 and Yellowknife to Jasper 2022). Friend came from Sweden to Co-drive and see more of B.C., the Yukon & Alaska. Micke came again for Summer ALCAN in 2022...I was 79, but age is just a number.
Had my 80th Birthday in Santa Maria, California during Mini Meet West 2023 and celebrated by driving my Mini in the Autocross...fastest 80 year old on the day!
Married to Elaine, 4 Grandchildren...sadly my younger Son's Wife lost her life to cancer in September 2017. Her Son was 9 years old on the day they told her she had just weeks to live. My Sons lost their Mom to cancer when just 12 & 10. But we put one foot in front of the other & carry on. My younger Son has carved out a specialist niche rebuilding super chargers for 1st generation MINIs.
Elaine's older boy has been in a care home for years now, has suffered hearing & vision loss. Hearings aids are helping and double cataract surgery has meant he can enjoy Christmas.
My older Son has discovered that he likes horses and is very supportive of his partner's riding and he enjoys stable duties. At work he has a team in India that reports to him as well as some in Atlanta. His daughters are in College 2nd year and Grades 12.
Elaine's younger Son is teaching yoga & selling heat pumps on Vancouver Island and has a very bright Daughter, who is also 'tough'...have only once heard her cry when a rat trap caught her 2-year old hand.
I have retired from active community participation, was head of our annual community celebration festival for several years, co-chaired our city's centennial committee and helped get a Liberal Member of Parliament elected here for the 1st time in 60 years. Now I just help a little with the local Museum Society, as Chair of its Facilities Committee, with a major underpass project just getting under...Expand for more
way. $141 million for it and 1 overpass here in Pitt Meadows. And now on the Engine Committee as the Underpass Project has stalled.
Easy to like slowing down in some areas. In 2017, I took an engine head to Brisbane & by Greyhound to Sydney & by Rivercat to Parramatta to work on modifying the head. I can say that doing a 44 hour return trip to work on the head taught me that bus travel can be a real pain for an older person...to say nothing about packing the head, cam. lifters, pistons, rings, pins from train to Greyhound at Sydney's central station. After our expedition (tw0 Toyotas) crossed Western Australia's Gibb River Road in the Kimberley, I brought the head home to put into the power unit build for our ALCAN entry.
As you can see, I have not given up my interest in Classic Minis. I am treasurer of our local club, organizer of some events but looking to hand off responsibility for organizing the annual rally (cardiac Care at RCH), spring escape (Canadian Diabetes) and fall escape with proceeds to ALS.
Our efforts with friends in Victoria for a Mini Meet West to be held in Victoria, B.C. in 2020 and 2021 were thwarted by COVID. Currently working with a group from Ohio, Virginia, Texas, Colorado and California on Mini Meet East Meets West 2024. Went to South Dakota last September (2023) to layout an 80 mile Rally route, line up the Autocross operator and photograph various sites from host hotel to the state university for events.
Apart from my little Australian Mini Van 'ROO', I am finishing the restoration/modification of a 1961 Austin Mini Countryman... a Woody wagon known as 'LUCKY'!
If you want to contact me, I am in the phone book under FG (not Rick)... 'F' for Frederick...in Pitt Meadows, B.C. (since November 1984).
We held a 60th Class Reunion one year late in June 2022 at the Arbutus Club and with a Harbour Cruise. I apologize if our report on events has been delayed.
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