A retired logistics manager who spent the last four years building a single wooden watercraft in his suburban driveway has passed away.
GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. — Gary Higgins, 58, died suddenly Thursday after being suffocated beneath 40 pounds of meticulously sanded red cedar canoe sawdust in his poorly ventilated garage.
Higgins, a retired logistics manager, spent his final four years almost exclusively in his driveway, painstakingly steaming, stripping, and sanding a 16-foot strip-built river canoe that never once touched a body of water. He held the neighborhood record for most consecutive weekends avoiding eye contact while holding a power tool, and previously survived a grueling 2014 kitchen remodel.
He always told me he just needed one more afternoon to get the gunwales right, and honestly, the finish on that starboard bow is as smooth as glass.
He is survived by his wife, two adult children who stopped asking when the boat would be finished in 2021, and an absolutely flawless, entirely un-navigable hull structure. Services will be held Tuesday. In lieu of flowers, the family asks that someone please come take the orbital sander.