Miles G. Higley
Miles G. Higley, 84, longtime Warden resident, passed away Monday, Oct. 30, 2006, at Samaritan Hospital. Funeral services will be held at 10 a.m. Saturday, Nov. 4, at The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Warden with Bishop Fred Ruge conducting. Vault interment with military honors will follow in Sunset Memorial Gardens. Arrangements are in care of Kayser's Chapel and Crematory, Moses Lake.
The family will greet friends at the funeral home on Friday evening from 5 p.m. until 7 p.m. and at the church on Saturday morning from 9 a.m. until 9:45 a.m.
Miles was born to John Glen and Vere Ardella (Rounds) Higley on Nov. 29, 1921 in Shelley, Idaho. The family soon moved to Tooele, Utah, where his father worked in the Bingham open pit copper mine, running a cable tram. He lost his father at age 5 to a hunting accident.
Miles attended school in Tooele and graduated from high school in 1940. As a reluctant first grader, he made many a recess escape, and found the local construction projects much more to his liking. He enjoyed sports very much, but his high school football career was cut short by a brush with polio.
He was working on a business degree when the attack on Pearl Harbor involved the United States in World War II, and he enlisted in the Army on Nov. 3, 1942. He served in New Guinea, the Philippines and then in occupied Japan. Upon his return home, he worked at Deseret Chemical Depot where he met his lifelong sweetheart, Norma June Butler, whom he made his wife on Nov. 27, 1946.
He was soon offered the opportunity to manage the Tooele Airport, and discovered a love of flying that was to be a lifelong passion. He also owned and managed a gas/service station in downtown Salt Lake City.
It wasn't long before he felt the pull of the Columbia Basin in Washington State. Lured by the irrigation project land drawing and the chance to be in the wide open spaces, he moved his little family to Warden in August of 1955.
He enjoyed the challenge of farming, but also worked at the Titan Missile Base, and the U&I Sugar factory in his early Basin years. In 1974 he and his son Blake formed Higley Farms, which continues to the present.
He was active and served for many years in first the Grand Coulee Stake, then the Othello Washington Stake of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. He helped build the Warden Chapel, and particularly enjoyed serving as a Young Men's leader. He also served as bishop of the Warden Ward, and most recently as stake patriarch where he has served for 15 years.
His family has been his first love and priority, and has grown to nine grandchildren and 10 great grandchildren.
He is survived by his beloved wife June, his children Blake and Carey (Gies) Higley, of Othello, Joette and LaMar Winder of Moses Lake, and Jill and John Robertson of Warden.
Miles was a true friend to everyone he met. He was fiercely independent, compassionate, and industrious. He saw the bright side to every situation. We will miss his happy nature and sense of fun and adventure.