Larry Allan Higley | October 21, 1936 – April 12, 2026

Larry Allan Higley was born October 21, 1936, in Fort Lewis, Washington. He passed away on April 12, 2026, in Seattle, Washington.

Larry was a gregarious man and probably spent most of his waking life talking to people. He would literally talk to anyone. He lived an adventurous and varied life including winning a trifecta down in San Diego when was a young man. In the truest sense of being young and carefree he was able to spend the thousands in winnings in a very short amount of time with the help of friends. He also started his love of sailing down in the waters off San Diego.

Larry married Virgene R. Lee in 1958, and they had a daughter, Michelle Ann Duvall (Higley). Larry and Virgene later divorced in 1959.

Later in 1960, he married his second wife Arlene, and they had two sons: Larry Allen Higley Junior and David Paul Higley. Larry joined Boeing in 1962. Larry worked for Boeing for most of his life, with a five year interlude as a farmer in central Oregon which gave his two school aged kids some wonderful memories including raising bummer lambs, driving tractors and three of four of the family doing work for Irwin Allen when he came to town and filmed part of his movie Flood.

Early on in Larry’s stint at Boeing in Seattle there were layoffs. He went to the relocation area, picked the shortest line and ended up in Alabama working on the Mercury/Saturn rocket program. In 1965, he was in Houston working on the Lunar Rover project which was part of Boeing’s contribution to the Apollo program.

In 1973, he bought a farm in Brownsville Oregon and farmed for 5 years (spending a lot of time drinking coffee and talking to other farmers at the feed and seed store). In 1978, he found he needed to go back to work for Boeing in Seattle and moved his family to Vashon where they lived for 41 years before moving to the Kenney in West Seattle. The house on Vashon was designed in his short lived architectural studies at the UW and which he eventually got to build.

Vashon was Larry’s most time in one place. His sons graduated from High School on the Island, his wife worked for the K2 corporation, and he continued working for Boeing, working on a wide variety of projects including the President’s plane. He was very well respected at Boeing and earned multiple awards over the years. Larry retired from Boeing in 1991, although he continued contract work for the company for several years.

One thing Vashon gave him was a chance to do even more sailing, and summer vacations were spent sailing the San Juans. Larry entered races, bought his own boat and even ran a chartering business for a while. He might have been at his happiest on the water sailing.

Larry never did graduate college, but he was well learned and had a thirst for knowledge and learning how things worked. Boeing gave him a chance to work on projects that were at the forefront of technology throughout his career. He also had a tremendous knowledge of machinery and engineering.

The hobby that endures is his woodworking. Larry was a very good furniture maker with a very meticulous eye. In one instance he made a library chair ladder combination for his daughter-in-law. After about a year and a half he showed her a perfectly functioning chair. He then told her it was just the prototype to make sure he had it correct and her real chair should be done in about six more months.

His work lives on in coffee tables, chests and other family heirlooms. His work also lives on in Vashon with some of the frames used by Pam Engels for her paintings. Or in parts of a wheeled table used at the Vashon funeral home which he may get a chance to travel on himself. Or in the tree fort he got to build for his grandsons, with the help of his grandsons. No actual tree was involved since it emerges out of a creek in a ravine on his old property.

Larry was well loved by many people and a big family. He will be missed. Larry was preceded in death by his son, Larry Allen Higley Junior (Chipper) and various other relatives. He is survived by his wife Arlene Higley, sisters Judy McGrady, Chris Peters, Kathy Jamieson, and brother Warren (Willi) Jamieson.

He is also survived and missed by son David Higley (wife Shannon), parents of grandsons John Higley and Frank Higley; daughter Michelle Duvall (husband Kim), parents of granddaughters Nichole Rivera, Breanna Baillie, and Heather Duvall. Additionally, Larry is survived by his eight great grandchildren: Christian, Layla, Rico, Rosie, Cherry, Amina, Sami and Aya.

Larry’s life ended peacefully and calmly. He was serenaded by an opera singer singing Old Man River two days before passing. He was able to say and hear goodbyes to multiple people in the last days. He took his last breaths watched by his wife, son and daughter-in-law.

His exit from the Kenney included a short stop in the Chapel to allow those residents to say good bye. It was a full circle life. He died in the Kenney, right across the street from Gatewood elementary where he attended grade school. He was in Houston working on the Apollo project when we first landed on the moon and he got to watch the Artemis splash down as we worked to land there again. Larry, you lived a full life.