Richard Dwight Higinbotham

Richard Dwight Higinbotham passed away peacefully on February 12, 2025, at his home in Ann Arbor following a brief illness. He was 80 years old. Rich was born on March 26, 1944, to Dwight and Georgina Higinbotham in Detroit, MI. Dwight, a sergeant with the Detroit Fire Department, tragically passed away from a stroke that occurred after battling a fire when Rich was just 10 years old.

Rich attended grade school in Detroit and Harper Woods before attending undergrad at the University of Michigan, earning a B.A. in 1967 with a major in Journalism and a minor in Creative Writing and English. In 1968, he was honored with a Hopwood Award for Short Fiction. In 1971, he received his M.S.W. from the School of Social Work and became a clinical social worker, applying his expertise at Hawthorne Center, Northville Regional Psychiatric Hospital, and Ypsilanti Regional Psychiatric Hospital. After taking early retirement from the State of Michigan in 1991, he began a two-decade career as a private practice psychotherapist in Ann Arbor and later in South Florida before retiring in 2019.

In 1991, Rich married Jeanne (Garman) Ross and embraced his role as a devoted stepfather to Abbie (Ross) Buhr. He leaves behind loving memories with his wife Jeanne, his stepdaughter Abbie and her husband, Jamie Buhr, and their sons Leo, 12, and Will, 9. Rich's legacy is also carried on by his brother-in-law Jerry (Liz) Garman, sisters-in-law Anne Garman (John Kozma) and Christine Moellering, and numerous nephews and nieces. He also had a deep affection for his cherished pets: Curtis, Alex, Sylvester, Muffin, Sidney, Cooper, Stuart, Riley, and Zoey.

Besides his career and family, Rich's greatest passion was tennis, a sport he played regularly throughout his life, both in Michigan and during the years he and Jeanne lived in West Palm Beach, Florida. He will be dearly missed by his many tennis friends, who will always remember him for his impressive serve. He delighted in basking in the sun, had a passion for photography, and never encountered a gadget he didn't love.

In lieu of flowers, memorial contributions can be made to A Brighter Way in Ypsilanti, Michigan