Former Spokesman-Review marketing director Shaun O’L. Higgins dies at 76

Shaun O’L. Higgins, whose optimism and insight fit neatly with his decades leading The Spokesman-Review’s advertising and marketing efforts, died unexpectedly Tuesday. He was 76.

Higgins might be best known for his local economic forecasts peppered with one-liners given to packed Spokane venues, unique insights gleaned from poring over sales data, and explanations of the booming 1990s or the stop-and-go early 2000s.

He had a salesman’s charisma and an authentic laugh that helped him earn an executive position during the financial heydays of newspapering.

“Shaun was a passionate newspaper man with an encyclopedic memory of history and politics, a restlessly creative mind and a broad sense of humor,” said Spokesman-Review Publisher W. Stacey Cowles. “He was a great mentor to me and to many others at The Spokesman-Review as a company and community leader. He’ll be long remembered and sorely missed.”

Colleagues remember Higgins for his smarts and interests that spanned world history, fine wines and a good joke.

During a 2010 interview when he announced his retirement, Higgins recalled his time as a journalist and the exhilaration of landing an important story. He formed the investigative reporting team working on the search for the South Hill rapist, who turned out to be Kevin Coe.

Higgins’ team used index cards, Cowles remembered, to compare the details of the rapes that were reported. It was a time before newsrooms used computers, and the reporters found that rapes were along a busy bus route.

Kathleen Coleman, the Spokesman-Review’s director of marketing and business development, called Higgins “a quick study with a brilliant mind, who had an ear for a clever turn of phrase (many of which he wrote himself).”

“He was astute, knew this market inside and out, and was well-regarded by advertising professionals, business owners, and staff alike,” she said.

He also believed in people, once telling Coleman that he could learn something from anyone and encouraging her to never pre-judge anyone.

“Shaun was a wealth of knowledge, and even helped me understand parts of our newspaper that weren’t in any of the old books about the history of journalism in Eastern Washington,” said Spokesman-Review Editor Rob Curley. “It wasn’t out of character for him to tell you something interesting from our past, then a few hours later, he’d send an email with scanned-in pages from our archives about the exact thing he was explaining. Getting emails like that from Shaun was always a treat.

“He was our newspaper’s most trusted and knowledgeable historian, but was way more than just a longtime employee who knew a lot of great stories and fascinating details. Shaun was passionate, intelligent and funny, and was someone who made you a little smarter and gave you a deeper understanding of almost anything you might talk with him about.”

Higgins won numerous marketing and advertising awards, and was a member of and served on trade industry boards across the country.

Shauney O’Leary Higgins was born March 22, 1948, in Princeton, Indiana, to John and Laura Higgins and raised in nearby Bloomington, where his mom worked at a local hospital. After graduating from Bloomington High School in 1966, he graduated from De Pauw University in Greencastle, Indiana.

Higgins started his newspaper career in the newsroom of the Brazil (Indiana) Daily Times in 1969. Four years later, he was national editor of the Roanoke Times in Roanoke, Virginia, at the tail end of the Watergate scandal. He then moved to New York and freelanced from August 1974 to September 1975 before returning to the newsroom as news editor of the Billings Gazette for two years, followed by a two-year tenure as capitol bureau chief for Lee Newspapers of Montana in Helena.

He joined The Spokesman-Review as executive sports editor in 1979 and became assistant managing editor a year later.

Upon leading the newspaper’s marketing division, Higgins began to fulfill another interest: public speaking. And he had plenty to share.

His economic forecasts were entertaining and drilled into the details about Spokane.

One former newsroom colleague remembers from decades ago how tickled Higgins was in telling how he found a little nugget of information.

“After getting that marketing job, Shaun compiled a host of curious and useful data points about Spokane,” retired reporter Tom Sowa said. “Among them was his discovery that per capita, we were one of the top 10 cities in the U.S. for spending on gardening and landscape.”

Higgins retired from The Spokesman-Review in 2011. He spent his later years consulting, speaking and writing about the Spokane economy. He also hosted KSPS’s “Saturday Night Cinema” movie program.

Higgins is survived by his wife, Ann Glendening, and their two children, Flannery Higgins of Cincinnati and Ian Higgins of New York.

The family will have a private celebration of life. There will not be a public funeral.