pioneer aircraft mechanic or “mechanician” as they were called in those days, Cecil Leroy “Cece” Higgins was born in Edora, Iowa in 1903. His family moved to Chadron, Nebraska, where he grew up across the street from a future Alaska aviation pioneer, Harold Gillam. In 1923, Cecil and Gillam came to Alaska, first landing in Cordova and then Chitina. They both worked for the Alaska Road Commission on the construction of the Richardson Highway.

In 1928, Cecil Higgins and Harold Gillam both got jobs with the Bennet-Rodebaugh Airplane Transportation Company in Fairbanks. The next year, the company was purchased by Carl Ben Eielson. Cecil moved down to Anchorage in 1930 and became the first certified aircraft mechanic at the town’s newly opened Merrill Field.

In August 1930, Higgins and pilot Matt Neimenen took the first flight without oxygen over Mt. McKinley, in a Fairchild 71 monoplane belonging to Alaska Airways. They broke all Alaska records for flying without oxygen at an altitude of over 20,300 feet. To accomplish this, they stripped the plane down, taking out the seats, and lightened up as much as possible, loading only enough fuel to get there and back. On the return they ran out of gas at Susitna Station and glided in about twenty miles to make a safe landing at Merrill Field. Higgins said it was “dead stick all the way.”

Cecil met Clara Peterson in 1930. An Anchorage schoolteacher, she had arrived that year from her birthplace in Burke, Idaho. She graduated from Teachers College in Cheney, Washington and then taught school in various towns in Washington and Idaho. Cecil and Clara were married in Seward in 1934, making a special trip by air to Seward with Jack Waterworth. The ceremony was performed by Joseph H. Romig, a well-known Alaskan doctor. It was the first wedding ceremony Dr. Romig had performed in 25 years.

Cecil Higgins worked for Alaska Star Airlines for five years as chief of maintenance, and during World War II he was called into service by Colonel E. Davis, commander of what was then called Fort Richardson-Elmendorf Field. Higgins became foreman of the Alaska General Air Depot, supervising maintenance of the Army’s combat aircraft during the Aleutian Campaign.

After the war, Higgins left the aircraft industry and worked for many years as a salesman in the clothing business and at Hoyt Motors, Anchorage Hardware, Northern Supply and Steel Fabricators. He and Clara had a daughter, Sally and a son, Dan. Dan had two daughters.

In 1980, after the death of Clara, Cecil moved into the Anchorage Pioneer Home, and in 1989 he moved to Tacoma, Washington to live with his son. Cecil Leroy Higgins died in Tacoma in 1990, and his ashes were returned to Alaska and scattered over the Chugach Mountains. He had been proud of being one of the founders of the Alaska Aviation Heritage Museum in Anchorage, and the museum’s restoration facility was named in honor of Cecil Higgins.