In Memoriam: A. Stanley Higgins, 1922–2013

By Edward A. Malone | Senior Member

A. Stanley Higgins (or Stan, as he was known to his friends) passed away on 3 March 2013 at the age of 90. He was a charter member of STC, editor of the Society’s journal from 1961 to 1976, national president in 1979–1980, and a frequent speaker at the Society’s annual conference. In fact, his affiliation with STC spanned nearly 60 years. But it was in his role as editor of the Society’s journal that he made his most important contribution to the Society and the profession. He was brought in as a “friendly undertaker” to phase out the journal, but instead he became its lifeline for 15 years.

Born in Chattanooga, TN, on 25 August 1922, Arnold Stanley Higgins attended Tennessee Tech, majoring in English in order to pursue his interest in journalism. His studies, however, were interrupted by his military service in the Philippines during World War II. After his discharge from the army, he returned to Tennessee Tech and changed his major to electrical engineering to capitalize on his military training. He could not abandon journalism, however. He served as editor of the college newspaper and transformed it into “one of the finest college newspapers in the country” (D. K. Higgins).

When he graduated in 1948, Higgins was recruited by a friend to supervise a small group of editors in Oak Ridge, TN. This group edited the National Nuclear Energy Series of reports about the Manhattan Project and the work of the Atomic Energy Commission. Later, Higgins worked for General Electric in Cincinnati (1955–1960) and Westinghouse in Pittsburgh (1960–1987).

In 1953, while still in Oak Ridge, Higgins became a charter member of the Association of Technical Writers and Editors (TWE), one of the organizations that would eventually become STC. From 1955 to 1956, he served as associate editor of the TWE Journal.

During this period, Higgins participated in discussions about the merger of TWE and the Boston-based Society of Technical Writers (Jenks). That merger led to the formation of the Society of Technical Writers and Editors (STWE) in 1957. In 1960, STWE merged with the Los Angeles-based Technical Publishing Society to form the Society of Technical Writers and Publishers (STWP). Higgins was the assistant editor of the Society’s journal when it changed names from STWE Review to STWP Review.

In 1961, an external review board recommended that the STWP Review be discontinued in favor of an expanded newsletter. The editor was irate and resigned on the spot. The Board of Directors asked Higgins to take over: “I was to be sort of a ‘friendly undertaker’ for the Review, charged with officiating over its final few issues. But to paraphrase Mark Twain, its demise was greatly exaggerated. Consequently, the friendly undertaker stayed on for 15 years” (Malone).

Higgins saw the journal through several name changes—from the STWP Review to Technical Communications (with an “s” on the end) to Technical Communication (its present name). He resigned as editor in 1976, but he remained active in STC and even served as national president for a year.

In a published reminiscence, Higgins gave credit to STC for his professional success: “I believe my professional growth was due largely to STC…. I am indebted to the organization for ‘finding’ me the job that turned out to be my longest” (A.S. Higgins). He was referring to his job at Westinghouse, where he worked for 27 years. Of course, STC owed Higgins a large debt and acknowledged it by electing him Fellow in 1975.

In later years, Stan was working on an autobiography. “Did I mention that it’s just a departing gift to the family?” he wrote in an email. “It isn’t finished, and maybe it never will be.” He did indeed finish the book and titled it Seventy Years of Working with Words. Stan was the epitome of a technical writer and editor in an era when technical communicators were, first and foremost, consummate wordsmiths.

Edward A. Malone is an associate professor of technical communication at Missouri University of Science and Technology in Rolla, MO.

References

Higgins, A. Stanley. “The Editor Speaks,” Technical Communication, May 1989, pp. 261–262.

Higgins, D.K. “The All-American,” State College Magazine, June 2002, pp. 56–58

Jenks, I. H., ed. Conference of Association of Technical Writers & Editors, April 14, 1956, STC archives, Fairfax, VA, p. 59.

Malone, Ed. “A. Stanley Higgins and the History of STC’s Journal,” IEEE Professional Communication Society Newsletter, July/August 2008, http://web.mst.edu/~malonee/pcsnews_julaug2008.pdf.