Frank L. Huggins Jr., the 1993-1994 president of APCO, passed away March 4 in Asheville, North Carolina, at 87.
Huggins, of Swannanoa, was active in the public safety communications industry and APCO throughout his 39-year career in the North Carolina State Highway Patrol. Throughout his career, Huggins aided technological, legislative and educational improvements to the operations of public safety communications.
Huggins began as a public safety telecommunicator in 1957 with the highway patrol. He served until 1996, rising to become Troop G communications supervisor, overseeing communication operations for 18 counties in western North Carolina.
According to a January 1989 APCO Bulletin article announcing his run for vice president, Huggins joined the association in 1972. He served as president of the APCO North Carolina Chapter, 1977-1978, and as a chapter delegate to the APCO Executive Council starting in 1979. In 1988, he served as conference chairman for the East Coast Regional Conference. Huggins helped develop the curriculum for the highway patrol’s Telecommunicator Basic Training school and served as an instructor starting in 1973. Huggins also taught law enforcement communications at Asheville-Buncombe Technical Community College.
Fellow APCO Past President Steve Proctor (1994-1995) remembered his friend’s “sense of dignity, grace and duty.” Another APCO Past President Joe McNeil (1997-1998) credited Huggins’ as inspiration for his later run for APCO office; noting “he was a man of the people” who set a fine example of service.
Huggins was married to Evelyn for 62 years until her death, and she also was active in APCO chapter activities, assisting with family programs and other conference events, according to the APCO Bulletin article. His grandson, Patrol Sergeant Matt Huggins of Marion Police in North Carolina, recalls that APCO conferences were a huge part of his childhood as he typically attended them with his grandfather who “instilled in him a great sense of public service.”
Huggins served as an elder and founding member of Swannanoa Valley Presbyterian Church for over 40 years and drove buses all over the country for school trips, both for his grandson’s school and the North Carolina School for the Deaf. Huggins is a U.S. Army veteran, serving 1955-1957 in Korea.
Huggins is survived by son, Franklin Huggins III; daughter, Meg Huggins; grandsons, Matthew Huggins and Shannon Swann; great grandchildren, Grayson, Kyle, Aiden, Harper and Asher Huggins; and sister, Louise Burrell.
A celebration of life service will be held Saturday, March 11, at 2p.m. at Valley Hope Church in Swannanoa. His obituary can be read here.
In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to Valley Hope Presbyterian Church, PO Box 992, Black Mountain, NC 28711.
