Bob Higgins received his nursing education at Binghamton State Hospital and Bellevue in New York City. He worked in psychiatric nursing after graduation and saw the revolution in mental health care that new medicines brought. In 1955 he entered advanced training to become a Certified Registered Nurse Anesthetist (CRNA) in Rochester, New York. He practiced as a nurse anesthetist in Mississippi and Florida, retiring in 2000 to Binghamton where he currently lives.