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April 16, 2026
Services
All are welcome to visit with the family at the Vander May Wayne Colonial Funeral Home, 567 Ratzer Road, Wayne, from 4-8p on Monday, April 20. Funeral services will begin at the funeral home on Tuesday, April 21 at 9:30a, with a Funeral Mass celebrated at 10:30a at Our Lady of Consolation Church, 1799 Hamburg Turnpike, Wayne. Mass will be followed by a repast at Portobello Restaurant, 175 Ramapo Valley Road, Oakland.
In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to the Alzheimer’s Association or Saint Mary High School in Rutherford.
Brian Thomas Higgins, 72, of Wayne via Upper Saddle River went home to the Lord Thursday, April 16. He was surrounded by the love of family and friends in his final days.
Brian was born to Patrick and Florence Higgins and lived his early years in Chicago before spending most of his youth in Rutherford. He excelled as a student and athlete at Saint Mary High School, where he was quarterback of the football team, a star baseball player, and a member of the basketball team. His athletic achievements earned him a place in St. Mary’s Hall of Fame, and he remained active in the school’s life long after he was a student. He went on to the University of Pennsylvania and earned his law degree at the University of Notre Dame, where he made lifelong friends in the school’s famed intramural sports.
It was also at Notre Dame where Brian met Karen, his classmate and herself a successful corporate attorney. They married in her hometown of Johnstown, Pennsylvania – the event’s attendees maintain to this day that it was both the most fun and wildest crowd any wedding has seen, primarily due to the antics of the groom’s softball buddies.
Brian had a long and successful career as a litigator, specializing in personal injury defense work. The bulk of his professional life took place at the law firm he co-founded in 1994, Norton, Arpert, Sheehy and Higgins. In addition to his legal success and tireless work ethic, he was beloved within the firm and the North Jersey legal community for his jovial professionalism, loyalty, and esprit de corps. He finished his career at the law firm of Foster and Mazzie, and retired from legal practice in 2020.
Brian threw himself wholeheartedly into every community where he belonged and became part of its fabric. Nowhere was this more evident than in Upper Saddle River where he and his wife of 44 years, Karen, made their home and raised their sons Adam and Tim. Brian was a fixture of the town’s youth sports programs, especially in leading its thriving baseball leagues for many years while the boys played. He was active in the parish life of the Church of the Presentation, where the Christmas Eve and Easter parking ministry relied on his steadfast service. Brian was also an enthusiastic volunteer in the activities of Boy Scout Troop 133 where both sons became Eagle Scouts. He enjoyed many nights bonding with other dads on camping trips to West Point and Harriman State Park. Even after he and Karen moved to Wayne, they volunteered and he participated in the annual Upper Saddle River 5K on Thanksgiving.
In the Manitou community where Brian and Karen moved, Brian continued to be an integral part of his community by volunteering in multiple capacities. He beautified Manitou by planting flowers every year on the corners of the community and at the clubhouse and could be seen daily watering and nurturing the flowers that he planted.
Brian loved sports, especially baseball, as a passionate fan of the New York Yankees, Cal Ripken Jr., and Notre Dame football. During the Yankee championship seasons of the late 1990s, when the Yankees entered the final inning of a series-clinching victory, Brian and his boys were known to mute TV audio and turn on the home’s built-in radio system to blare John Sterling’s famous “Ballgame over! World Series over! Yankees win! The-uh-uh-uh Yankees win!”
Brian and Karen dedicated their lives to their sons and the rest of their extended family. Brian warmly welcomed his daughter-in-law Erica to the family in 2021, and his latest and greatest joy was his young grandchildren Patrick and Mary, who feel deep affection for their “Pa.” Even at the very end of his life as his body faltered, his spirit came to life in his grandchildren’s presence.
As the third of eight siblings, Brian cherished his large family. Along with Karen and his sons and grandchildren, he is survived by siblings Patty (Joe Gazdowicz), Kevin (Maryellen), Barbara (Kevin McCallion), Sheila (John Bedard), and Tom (Stacey) and all of their children. Sisters Kathy (Victor Steckler) and Mary (Ted Gonzalez) preceded him in death. The broader family’s best weeks each year were spent at the annual summer vacation that Brian and Karen hosted at Long Beach Island. He loved tossing the football with his sons and their cousins and friends, fishing trips on Barnegat Bay, and fitting in as many “dips” in the Atlantic Ocean as he could each day.
If you would like to send a private condolence directly to the family use this condolence section.
All are welcome to visit with the family at the Vander May Wayne Colonial Funeral Home, 567 Ratzer Road, Wayne, from 4-8p on Monday, April 20. Funeral services will begin at the funeral home on Tuesday, April 21 at 9:30a, with a Funeral Mass celebrated at 10:30a at Our Lady of Consolation Church, 1799 Hamburg Turnpike, Wayne. Mass will be followed by a repast at Portobello Restaurant, 175 Ramapo Valley Road, Oakland.
In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to the Alzheimer’s Association or Saint Mary High School in Rutherford.
April 16, 2026
Services
All are welcome to visit with the family at the Vander May Wayne Colonial Funeral Home, 567 Ratzer Road, Wayne, from 4-8p on Monday, April 20. Funeral services will begin at the funeral home on Tuesday, April 21 at 9:30a, with a Funeral Mass celebrated at 10:30a at Our Lady of Consolation Church, 1799 Hamburg Turnpike, Wayne. Mass will be followed by a repast at Portobello Restaurant, 175 Ramapo Valley Road, Oakland.
In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to the Alzheimer’s Association or Saint Mary High School in Rutherford.
Brian Thomas Higgins, 72, of Wayne via Upper Saddle River went home to the Lord Thursday, April 16. He was surrounded by the love of family and friends in his final days.
Brian was born to Patrick and Florence Higgins and lived his early years in Chicago before spending most of his youth in Rutherford. He excelled as a student and athlete at Saint Mary High School, where he was quarterback of the football team, a star baseball player, and a member of the basketball team. His athletic achievements earned him a place in St. Mary’s Hall of Fame, and he remained active in the school’s life long after he was a student. He went on to the University of Pennsylvania and earned his law degree at the University of Notre Dame, where he made lifelong friends in the school’s famed intramural sports.
It was also at Notre Dame where Brian met Karen, his classmate and herself a successful corporate attorney. They married in her hometown of Johnstown, Pennsylvania – the event’s attendees maintain to this day that it was both the most fun and wildest crowd any wedding has seen, primarily due to the antics of the groom’s softball buddies.
Brian had a long and successful career as a litigator, specializing in personal injury defense work. The bulk of his professional life took place at the law firm he co-founded in 1994, Norton, Arpert, Sheehy and Higgins. In addition to his legal success and tireless work ethic, he was beloved within the firm and the North Jersey legal community for his jovial professionalism, loyalty, and esprit de corps. He finished his career at the law firm of Foster and Mazzie, and retired from legal practice in 2020.
Brian threw himself wholeheartedly into every community where he belonged and became part of its fabric. Nowhere was this more evident than in Upper Saddle River where he and his wife of 44 years, Karen, made their home and raised their sons Adam and Tim. Brian was a fixture of the town’s youth sports programs, especially in leading its thriving baseball leagues for many years while the boys played. He was active in the parish life of the Church of the Presentation, where the Christmas Eve and Easter parking ministry relied on his steadfast service. Brian was also an enthusiastic volunteer in the activities of Boy Scout Troop 133 where both sons became Eagle Scouts. He enjoyed many nights bonding with other dads on camping trips to West Point and Harriman State Park. Even after he and Karen moved to Wayne, they volunteered and he participated in the annual Upper Saddle River 5K on Thanksgiving.
In the Manitou community where Brian and Karen moved, Brian continued to be an integral part of his community by volunteering in multiple capacities. He beautified Manitou by planting flowers every year on the corners of the community and at the clubhouse and could be seen daily watering and nurturing the flowers that he planted.
Brian loved sports, especially baseball, as a passionate fan of the New York Yankees, Cal Ripken Jr., and Notre Dame football. During the Yankee championship seasons of the late 1990s, when the Yankees entered the final inning of a series-clinching victory, Brian and his boys were known to mute TV audio and turn on the home’s built-in radio system to blare John Sterling’s famous “Ballgame over! World Series over! Yankees win! The-uh-uh-uh Yankees win!”
Brian and Karen dedicated their lives to their sons and the rest of their extended family. Brian warmly welcomed his daughter-in-law Erica to the family in 2021, and his latest and greatest joy was his young grandchildren Patrick and Mary, who feel deep affection for their “Pa.” Even at the very end of his life as his body faltered, his spirit came to life in his grandchildren’s presence.
As the third of eight siblings, Brian cherished his large family. Along with Karen and his sons and grandchildren, he is survived by siblings Patty (Joe Gazdowicz), Kevin (Maryellen), Barbara (Kevin McCallion), Sheila (John Bedard), and Tom (Stacey) and all of their children. Sisters Kathy (Victor Steckler) and Mary (Ted Gonzalez) preceded him in death. The broader family’s best weeks each year were spent at the annual summer vacation that Brian and Karen hosted at Long Beach Island. He loved tossing the football with his sons and their cousins and friends, fishing trips on Barnegat Bay, and fitting in as many “dips” in the Atlantic Ocean as he could each day.
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