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Jimmy Higham, age 63, died on February 26, 2020 in Honolulu. He was born on November 11, 1956 at Rhein-Main AFB, Germany where his father was stationed at the time. When Jimmy was less than a year old, the family moved from Germany to Hawaii and he has lived in Hawaii pretty much ever since. After finishing High School, Jimmy got a degree from Leeward Community College in Information Computer Science. After working for Dillingham Shipyard as a laborer for a while, Jimmy started working for the Art Nelson Rigging shop in 1980 when it was located at 1700 Ala Moana Boulevard (mauka of where the Prince Hotel is now). Later Jimmy moved from "rigging" to making sails with Sonny Nelson and worked there until 2008, when he started his own company providing a variety of boating related services. Most recently he worked in the sales department at West Marine. Jimmy loved to help people. He always had time to listen to their problems and offer advice on how to solve their problems, at least those related to sailing and/or boats in general.When the family was living on Hickam AFB, in the mid 1960's, and Jimmy was only about 8 years old, they got into "sailing" at Hickam Harbor. It didn't take long for "boats" to become Jimmy's passion. In the mid 1970's his older brother "roped" him into helping to build a 24-foot sailboat from "scratch". After they finished it, the two brothers raced the boat, named Positive Vibrations, for many years. Later in 1980, when Jimmy's father bought a 38-foot Catalina sailboat in California, which he named Kanani, Jimmy (only 23 at the time) and couple of his friends sailed Kanani from California to Honolulu. This was before GPS was available so Jimmy had to learn celestial navigation in order to make the crossing and "find" Honolulu. After getting back to Honolulu Jimmy started racing on a number of other boats including a relatively small 33-ft sailboat, named Raider, which they raced around the entire State of Hawaii (with a crew of 6) as part of the world famous 1980 Kenwood Regatta. Later he sailed in another Kenwood Regatta on a 68-ft boat named Hokulele with a crew of 20+, moving from a very small boat the first time to a very large boat the second time.
He is survived by his loving family, sister Joanna Wong, brother John, sister-in-law Kathy, niece Amy and 2 nephews Greg and Brandon Wong.
Private services, which were delayed due to Covid-19, will be held on February 26, 2021.
Arrangements Provided By: Oahu Mortuary
