Julian Higgins ’60 was the youngest of 12 children, 10 of whom attended Berea, either at the Foundation School or the College. The Higgins family lived on a farm in Magoffin County, Kentucky, where the children walked a great distance to a one-room schoolhouse.
Between 1932 and 1944, the oldest children, Lindon, Ishmael, Fannie, Joe, Melvin and Ray moved to Berea to attend the Foundation School, where they stayed in a dormitory and worked to pay for their room and board. In 1944, Julian’s parents sold the farm and moved the rest of the family to Berea, where they also could pursue a better education.
Julian was the last of the family to graduate from Berea College with a degree in geology. In 1962, he joined the U.S. Air Force. Because of his educational background, Higgins was assigned to the Photo Mapping and Charting Wing to collect aerial photography and establish geodetic positions and elevations to update air nautical charts and maps in countries around the world. He retired in 1982.
In 2014, after reading a thank you letter from a student in appreciation of the education fund that helped him graduate and achieve a college degree, Higgins established the Higgins Family Education Fund in honor of the 10 Higgins family members who continued their education at Berea College.
