Education
He was admitted to the United States Military Academy (West Point) and graduated as a Distinguished Graduate (graduated in the top 5% of his class) in 1974.
He was admitted to the United States Military Academy (West Point) and graduated as a Distinguished Graduate (graduated in the top 5% of his class) in 1974.
He credits the lessons he learned in his involvement with Scouting for the ability to get his company going. Higgs got involved in Scouting as a nine-year-old Cub Scout in Cleveland, Ohio. He noted that on the application to West Point three of ten background questions related to Scouting: "Were you a Scout? Were you an Eagle Scout? Were you a senior patrol leader?" While there he was active in soccer, judo, and wrestling.
He was also a semi-finalist for a Rhodes Scholarship.
Upon graduation he served five years in the Army as a combat engineer and Ranger. He used skills he learned in Scouting such as carving and using rope in and outside the Army.
Higgs co-founded Mustang Engineering in 1987 in Houston, Texas despite the oil and gas industry"s struggles at the time. The company focused on engineering, procurement, and construction management to offshore oil and gas platforms.
The company used computer-aided design when most were still doing manual drawings.
Mustang Engineering is now a business unit of Wood Group, based in Aberdeen, Scotland. The company also works in pipeline, automation, and nonenergy process markets. In the mid-2000s they moved from Houston to Waxhaw, North Carolina.
Higgs continues to support Scouting.