OREGON
A6 — THE OBSERVER
TUESDAY, DECEMBER 7, 2021
An aging survivor heads to Hawaii
Central Oregon
resident Dick
Higgins returns
to Pearl Harbor
By KYLE SPURR
The Bulletin
BEND — The room in
the quiet house on Har-
vard Place in Bend is full of
memories, but when Dick
Higgins needs help bringing
the oldest ones into focus,
he’ll often grab a magni-
fying glass.
At 100, Higgins won’t
let himself forget how he
survived the Dec. 7, 1941,
attack on Pearl Harbor. He
has surrounded himself with
handwritten notes, books
and black-and-white photo-
graphs at a table in the home
he shares with his grand-
daughter and her family.
His hand shakes as he
holds the magnifying glass
to a logbook he used as a
20-year-old Navy radio
operator in Pearl Harbor.
He turns his attention to
a nearby stack of history
books about the attack full
of his written descriptions
in the margins. One note
reminds Higgins of how he
sought cover under a plane
fi lled with 1,500 gallons of
fuel. The plane could have
easily exploded.
“Not a good place to be
at the time,” Higgins wrote.
Higgins has made it a
point to honor a promise
that Pearl Harbor survivors
hold close to their hearts: to
remember what happened
that day and those who died
in the hail of death delivered
by Japanese warplanes on
an otherwise quiet Sunday
morning in Hawaii.
The blue ball cap Hig-
gins wears nearly every day
helps with that.
As long as his family
can remember, Higgins has
worn the cap that identifi es
his naval squadron, VP-22,
and is embroidered with the
words “Pearl Harbor Sur-
vivor.” There are seven pins
on the cap, including one
that reads, “Remember Pearl
Harbor.”
People notice the ball cap
when they see Higgins in a
grocery store, at a restaurant
or on the streets of Bend.
He always stops to share his
story, just as he did 15 years
ago when he was president
of the Pearl Harbor Survi-
vors Association chapter in
Orange County, California.
Back then, he often spoke
to schoolchildren about the
attack.
The last time Higgins
was at Pearl Harbor was on
Dec. 7, 2016, when there
were three known survivors
living in Bend. Now he is
the only one.
The other survivor
in Central Oregon is
99-year-old Marvin
Emmarson, of Sisters, who
served in the Navy during
the attack.
Ever since his trip in
2016, Higgins has vowed to
attend Tuesday’s ceremony
honoring the 80th anni-
versary of the attack. The
great-grandfather isn’t plan-
ning another trip. His family
knows he has longevity in
his veins, but the reality is
that if Higgins lives to see
the 85th anniversary, he will
be too frail to travel.
For the centenarian to
stand on the edge of the
harbor this week, at the
place where his life was
cemented into history, is
a moment that will never
happen again.
“I want to reminisce and
see the beach down there
again,” Higgins said. “I’ll
try to fi gure the details
Ryan Brennecke/The Bulletin
Angela Norton reads a handwritten note back to her grandfather Dick Higgins, who at 100 is the oldest living Pearl Harbor survivor in Central
Oregon, that describes what he was doing near the time the photo was taken as they look through a book on the attack on Pearl Harbor to-
gether on Oct. 7, 2021.
MORE INFORMATION
To read the entire story of
Dick Higgins and his trip back
to Pearl Harbor, log on to
lagrandeobserver.com.
of that day and honor the
people who lost their lives.”
Going back to Pearl
Harbor honors the dead who
never got a chance to live
the kind of full life survivors
did. In the years after the
attack, Higgins pursued a
career in radio engineering,
got married and raised two
children. In the 1960s, he
briefl y ran a Winchell’s
Donut House in Southern
California. Today, he has
two grandchildren and four
great-grandchildren, who
are all accompanying him
on the trip back.
All the men in Hig-
gins’ barracks survived the
attack. But Higgins still wit-
nessed the destruction that
killed 2,390 Americans.
Higgins served in a 130-
member squadron and was
assigned to a fl ight crew as
a second class radioman on
Ford Island in the center of
Pearl Harbor. He often fl ew
on missions in PBY Catalina
amphibious aircraft.
The devastation sticks
with the survivors. Some
have even returned after
death, their ashes interred
by divers on the sunken
hull of the battleship USS
Arizona, which lies on
the harbor bottom below
a gleaming white memo-
rial. More than 900 Arizona
crewmen remain entombed
in the ship.
Emily Pruett, a spokes-
person for the Pearl Harbor
National Memorial, whose
great-uncle survived the
attack, said the survivors are
living links to that era.
“It’s so meaningful for
everybody to have that tan-
gible access to the past,”
Pruett said.
Their motivation to
return inspired the National
Park Service to host an 80th
anniversary event, despite
the complications created by
the COVID-19 pandemic,
Pruett said. Last year’s anni-
versary was done virtually
due to the virus.
Pruett expects Tuesday’s
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Ryan Brennecke/The Bulletin, File
Dick Higgins smiles while talking with a visitor during his 100th
birthday celebration in Bend on Saturday, July 24, 2021.
ceremony to host between
150 to 250 World War II
veterans, including about a
40 Pearl Harbor survivors.
Their presence is espe-
cially meaningful because,
for many, it will be their
last visit. The youngest
Pearl Harbor survivors
today are 98.
“Their willingness to
travel speaks to their gen-
eration’s character,” Pruett
said.
Their attendance is
impressive for another
reason. No more than 75
survivors are thought to be
alive, said Kathleen Farley,
the California chapter
president with Sons and
Daughters of Pearl Harbor
Survivors.
Farley said the fi rst cer-
emony at Pearl Harbor was
held in 1966 to mark the
25th anniversary of the
attack. Before then, the Pearl
Harbor Survivors Associa-
tion formed in 1958 and held
a reunion Dec. 7, 1960, at
Disneyland. The association
disbanded in 2011, due to
the survivors getting older,
leaving Sons and Daughters
chapters to keep the mem-
ories alive. Today, there are
13 chapters in 12 states.
Farley, a retired high
school teacher from Con-
cord, California, has worked
with the Sons and Daugh-
ters group for more than 30
years. She has dedicated her
life to preserving the legacy
of those who fought and
died that day. Her father,
John. J. Farley, was aboard
the USS California during
the attack. He survived for
one reason.
“He knew how to swim,”
she said.
Farley went back to Pearl
Harbor with her father for
the 50th anniversary in
1991, and again every fi ve
years until her father’s death
in 2007. She has gone back
every year since to honor
him.
The site of the attack is
sacred to the survivors and
the need to return is pow-
erful, Farley said.
“I have heard from many
survivors that they will
return to Pearl Harbor on
Dec. 7 to be the voice of the
survivors that didn’t make
it,” Farley said.
For most of the last 80
years, the Pearl Harbor sur-
vivors have returned to
mark each anniversary.
They joined diplomats,
admirals and presidents.
They brought memories to
share and children — and
later, grandchildren — to
share them with.
The 50th anniversary
drew more than 2,000 survi-
vors, who were feted with a
parade through the streets of
Waikiki. Time has thinned
their ranks, however.
By 2016, an estimated
300 survivors returned for
the 75th anniversary. About
15 arrived in 2018 and a
dozen the following year.
Their annual pilgrimage
has been called a last hurrah
for several decades, but it
may fi nally be true in 2021.
Higgins has returned to
Pearl Harbor several times.
His fi rst trip back was
in 1991 with his late wife,
Winnie Ruth Higgins, to
mark the 50th anniversary
of the attack.
He went back fi ve years
later, and he was there for
the 60th anniversary, less
than three months after the
terrorist attacks on Sept.
11, 2001. About 800 Pearl
Harbor Survivors returned
that year and the presence
of an estimated 600 New
Yorkers — police, fi re-
fi ghters and their families —
linked both surprise attacks.
“When the planes went
into the towers I was really
ticked off ,” Higgins recalled.
“Very familiar feeling to
Pearl Harbor.”
He would return three
more times — in 2006, 2011
and 2016.
When he traveled to
Hawaii to mark the 65th
anniversary in 2006, he
wanted to see where he was
stationed on Ford Island. It
can be reached by bridge but
is not open to civilian traffi c.
Higgins and other sur-
vivors were invited to the
island for a tour of the newly
opened Pearl Harbor Avia-
tion Museum. He went with
his granddaughter’s hus-
band, Ryan Norton.
The two strayed away
from the tour to visit the site
of a hangar used by Higgins’
squadron that was destroyed
in the attack. But they wan-
dered too far from the tour
and missed the bus back to
their hotel.
At that moment, an
offi cer stepped out of a
nearby building, thinking
Higgins and Norton were
trespassing.
“He looks at Grandpa
and says, ‘Stay there,’” said
Norton, a 46-year-old loan
offi cer in Bend. “He went
back inside and we thought
we were in trouble.”
Instead, having realized
Higgins was a Pearl Harbor
survivor, the offi cer brought
six sailors to meet him. The
sailors were no older than
Higgins was when he was
serving in Hawaii. They
gathered around to hear
Higgins’ story.
“It was really so cool to
see these guys listen and
Grandpa describing exactly
what happened,” Norton
said. “They stayed with us
for an hour.”
After talking with the
sailors, the offi cer drove
Higgins and Norton to their
hotel.
Every trip back to Pearl
Harbor makes Higgins feel
like royalty. On other trips,
Higgins was stopped for
photographs with people,
has signed autographs and
met strangers who off ered to
pay for his dinner.
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