John Wesley Higley Sr.

John Wesley Higley, 92, died on August 26, 2025, in Tucson, Arizona. He was born on March 3, 1933, in Santa Monica, California to Paul and Lottie Woodrow Higley, the youngest of their four children. John attended boarding school at Laurelwood Academy in Gaston, Oregon before serving in the Navy as storekeeper aboard the USS Pritchett during the Korean War. After the war, he became a true globetrotter as his ship was sent on a worldwide, Pacific-to-Atlantic, goodwill tour visiting a total of 12 countries. He married the love of his life, Shirley Ann Roberson, on January 14, 1956, in Clovis, New Mexico and together they enjoyed 55 years of marriage and travel, until her death in 2011. John served the Tucson community for over 45 years in the pest control industry, owning and operating his own business, John’s Termite & Pest Control, for 31 years. In his free time, John enjoyed wood working, drawing, beating his family at cards and dominos, and he never met a slot machine he didn’t like. Those left to cherish his memory include his brother-in-law, Dale Roberson of Oceanside, CA; his children, Gary Hillman of Marshfield, MA; John Higley, Jr. of Tucson, AZ; Linda Melby of Roseburg, OR; Michael Higley of Colorado Springs, CO; 12 grandchildren and 24 great-grandchildren. He will be interred with his beloved wife, Shirley, at Riverside National Cemetery in California on September 26th