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Many people out tailgating this morning in Q-Lot. Beautiful, sunny morning. Big crowd. Sodexo Food Service was serving complimentary doughnuts, juice, iced-tea, etc. Music was being played in front of Western Hall with many of the songs from the 1960's. University Housing and Dining was selling some momentos from Higgins: door plate numbers, trophies, etc. It is amazing that a 20-story building can come down in 15 seconds.
Here is the Live Stream as seen today on University Television:
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Quincy Television stations WGEM and KHQA were there as well as WQAD from Moline. They will have stories on tonight's News. Western alumnus Nick Stewart was there for KHQA.
I'm sure there was a Higgins it was named after. All the other buildings are named after either governors, university presidents, or important former faculty members, I believe.
We watched it from a packed Horrabin parking lot before heading out of town. For a building that I only ever set foot in a couple of times, I was surprised how emotional I was about it. Then again, I've lived my entire life essentially in the shadow of the two towers. They've just always been there...and now one is gone. It almost felt like having someone you've known for a long time pass away. It's going to take a while to get used to that.
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Scott Lawson - Board Admin
Western Illinois University Alum/Fan/Employee
Member of the Marching Leathernecks - 1996-2000
I spent my last semester there, cant even remember floor let alone the room number. It was a nice place to study. VERY Quiet. Great view up on top in the cafeteria. The floor layout was such that you were lucky if you ever crossed paths with 5 five people during the course of the day. IIRC, I know I got towed once from the adjacent parking lot and I think it was twice during that semester. I had only the Q lot sticker. Some lessons in life take a while to sink in.
sealhall74 wrote: Sat Jul 01, 2017 1:11 pm
So is/was there a real Mr./Mrs. Higgins that this dorm was named in honor of or did we randomly draw a name out of the telephone book?
From today's Quincy Herald-Whig:
The dormitory was named after the late Arthur R. Higgins, a long-time editor of The Herald-Whig.
Art Higgins, who died in 1966 at age 66, was not only an accomplished newspaperman and widely known community leader, but also was a former teacher with a fervent desire to improve education.
Art Higgins, a former WIU student and father of nine children, was a founding member and former chairman of the Illinois Citizens' Education Committee. He also served on the Board of Governors of State Colleges and Universities, which oversaw WIU and several other Illinois institutions of higher learning until separate Boards were established in 1995.
ST_Lawson wrote: Sat Jul 01, 2017 4:33 pm
I don't know about over by Q lot, but where I was, there were only about 8 or so quadcoptors/drones shooting video.
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Yeah I was in front of Morgan and there was about 6 drones that I saw.
Scott Lawson - Board Admin