The brash young Higgins was often in trouble for brawling and would eventually drop out of high school. After a stint in the Nebraska National Guard, he left the state to work in the lumber industry on the Gulf Coast.

It was during his time there that Higgins first began to think about innovative boat designs to improve how the work gets done. While navigating the swamps and bayous, he conceived of a compact shallow-water boat that could remove and transport heavy logs through challenging, debris-laden waterways.

While improving his designs, Higgins bought a small boatyard in New Orleans and founded Higgins Industries. He branded his improved shallow-water boat, with characteristic flair, the “Eureka.” It would eventually form the foundation for the iconic Landing Craft, Vehicle, Personnel (LCVP) or “Higgins Boat” that landed Allied troops not only at Normandy, but on the beaches of North Africa, Italy, and countless islands across the Pacific, as well as the German banks of the Rhine River in March 1945.

Throughout the 1930s, Higgins fought to establish his company’s reputation and convince a skeptical military establishment of the merits of his boat designs. He convinced the U.S. Coast Guard to buy his boats, which in turn drew the attention of the U.S. Marine Corps. At the time, the options available for amphibious landings were inadequate. Although the Marines lobbied the Navy to consider Higgins’ boats, Navy leaders were developing their own designs and were uninterested.

Undeterred, Higgins journeyed to the Navy’s Bureau of Ships in Washington, D.C., to argue for his designs. While there, he looked at the blueprints of the Navy-designed boat and scrawled on it, “This boat stinks – A.J.H.” After the Navy’s designs failed during trials, they finally agreed to test the Eureka boat. The ensuing trial proved Higgins’ design had the right stuff and led the Navy to award his small, little-known company with a contract to build landing craft for the military.