John Higgason, Jr.
John M. Higgason, Jr., 66, died on January 21, 2016, at home with his family, after a 35-year struggle with kidney disease. He was a long time member of the Chattanooga and Hamilton County legal community.
A resident of Lookout Mountain, Tn., where he served as municipal judge for the town, he was born in Chattanooga, on Dec. 3, 1949. Son of the late Dr. John M. Higgason, he graduated from the Baylor School where he was a letterman in football and wrestling. It was also there that he came under the influence and mentoring of two great coaches, Luke Worsham and Jack Stanford.
Mr. Higgason graduated from Vanderbilt University with a BS in Psychology and then obtained his law degree from the Cecil B. Humphries School of Law at Memphis State University, now the University of Memphis, in 1975. He practiced law for a short time in Memphis, before returning to Chattanooga to begin his lifelong service to the legal community and his clients in several associations of lawyers. The last association was with his two classmates both from elementary school at Normal Park and the Baylor School, Harry Burnette and Steven Dobson. He was a member of the Chattanooga Bar Association, Tennessee Bar Association, and Tennessee Trial Lawyers Association and later in his career was honored with his induction as a Fellow of the Chattanooga Bar Foundation, a group devoted to improvement of legal services and legal help to the community. He was the 2015 recipient of the Harry Weill Zealous Practice of Law Award from the Chattanooga Bar Association.
Mr. Higgason was also active through the years with various kidney organizations and kidney disease issues. He served on the Tennessee Donor Services-Chattanooga board, volunteered for the Kidney Foundation of Southeastern Tennessee and often spoke to civic organizations about kidney disease awareness and kidney transplantation as he had undergone that procedure himself 4 times.
He was also proud of his participation in the National Transplant Games in 1990 held in Indianapolis, IN and again in 1994 at Emery University in Atlanta, GA, where he won several medals in swimming events for his age group including a gold medal in the butterfly. After his swimming career ended Mr. Higgason turned his attention and energy to fly fishing. With the help of his fishing mentor and a fellow colleague in law he learned and developed his skills of this highly technical sport which he enjoyed to the end of his life. He found the quite solitude of his favorite trout streams to be a great escape from the pressures and demands of his law practice and later the demands of his career in mediation.
After his health problems intensified, Mr. Higgason chose to close his law practice in 2009 to concentrate full time on alternative dispute resolution with Arbitration and Mediation Services, Inc. and its principal and his close friend, Joseph C. Wilson. As a full time mediator who had been included in the first list of state wide mediators approved by the Supreme Court of Tennessee, Mr. Higgason devoted his efforts and energy to helping litigants and ordinary people settle their differences or legal issues outside of the courtroom setting. He felt strongly that mediation was more beneficial for solving legal disputes and especially in family and domestic cases, and specifically in cases with children involved.
He was an early member of the Mediation Association of Tennessee and ADR, Inc., formerly known as SPIDR, the national association of mediation professionals. He was an approved mediator by the Tennessee Supreme Court and approved by the U.S. District Court, Eastern District, as both a mediator and an arbitrator.
Mr. Higgason also served as city judge for the town of Lookout Mountain, Tn., for several years beginning in 2009, where he dealt with legal issues of his fellow mountain residents and visitors to the mountain who were alleged to have violated city or state ordinances or laws. Many a loose dog also was a subject of mountain jurisdiction.
Mr. Higgason was preceded in death by his father, John M. Higgason, and mother, Charlotte H. Walker.
He is survived by his wife of 44 years, Connie Cullom Higgason, his daughters, Katherine Higgason (Jason) Lentz, of Chattanooga, and Charlotte Higgason (Douglas) Gregorie, of Lookout Mountain.
His grandchildren are Lorelei May Lentz, Cecelia Ann Lentz, William Douglas Gregorie, V, (Fiver), and Lellie Cullom Gregorie. He also is survived by his many cousins located primarily in Arkansas and Texas where his family had its roots.
He is survived by his sister, Robin H. (Ben) Seale, of Holly Springs, MS and his nephews, Dr. Ben (Ann) Seale, Jr., Andy Seale, and niece, Hamilton S. (James) Moriarty, and their children.
His family also thanks those many wonderful nurses and patient care techs who cared for him during his many years of dialysis treatments at the various clinics that he visited on family trips and at his home clinic of DCI, Inc. at South Broad Street, Chattanooga.
He was a communicant of the Church of the Good Shepherd (Episcopal) of Lookout Mountain, Tn., and was the designated reader for the Men’s Study Group which met Wednesday mornings at 7:00 a.m.
Please visit www.heritagechattanooga.com to share words of comfort to the family.
Visitation will be at the Church of the Good Shepherd on Monday, Jan. 25, from 2:30-3:30p.m. A memorial service will be held at 3:30 p.m with internment in the Harriet Caldwell Memorial Garden of the Church of the Good Shepherd.
Heritage Funeral Home East Brainerd is in charge of all arrangements.