Former Amherst County teacher honored by Rotary Club

One of Amherst County’s former beloved teachers received a special recognition by the Amherst Rotary Club last week when members announced a donation in his honor — to help eradicate polio, which profoundly affected his life and steered him toward an education.

Harold Higgins, formerly a 47-year vocational agriculture and shop teacher at Amherst County High School, was honored by a $2,000 donation in his name by the club to Rotary International, which will become part of a matching grant program by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to eradicate polio worldwide.

“It humbles me greatly to find out that people have some respect for me,” Higgins said.

Higgins, 91, a native of Grayson County, developed polio when he was 7. It affected his left arm.

“Mother said, I didn’t have a choice, that I had to get an education,” said Higgins, referring to advice he got from his mother, Della Hampton Higgins, after he was beset by the disease.

His father was Pius Colonel Higgins, who farmed beef cattle, hay and corn where Higgins was raised, five miles south of Galax, and he would not go on to a life of physical labor.

But he did become one of the most-known teachers in modern Amherst County history.

“Mr. Higgins was an outstanding person and a great teacher,” said Amherst High Principal Ernie Guill, who learned personally and professionally from Higgins. “You could always county on Mr. Higgins doing what was best for his students and Amherst County High School.

“He was like a father figure to many of his students. He was a leader in the building, and he was well respected by members of the faculty at ACHS. He was dedicated to the education profession, his students and Amherst County High School. I personally had the utmost respect for Mr. Higgins as a person.”

In 2007, Rotary International began a partnership with the Gates Foundation to pump $200 million into the global campaign to eradicate polio. The disease cripples and sometimes kills children in parts of Africa, Asia and the Middle East.

The Rotary Foundation received a $100 million grant from the Gates Foundation, and Rotary is matching it dollar for dollar over three years.

The Gates grant was to be used for immunizations done by the Global Polio Eradication Initiative, a partnership led by the World Health Organization, Rotary International, the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and UNICEF, according to the Gates Foundation.

For more information, visit http://www.gatesfoundation.org.