BRANFORD, Conn. – Arthur Eugene Higgins, 85, of North Haven, Conn., a warm and generous-hearted man, died at Connecticut Hospice on Nov. 18, of complications from cancer.

He was born Aug. 11, 1922, in Lisbon, the son of Ivory Ephraim Higgins and Elsie Marion Bowie Higgins. He graduated from Bates College in 1943. A gifted musician at an early age, he felt called instead to the ministry. He enrolled at Yale Divinity School, where he met Anne Olding Hall of Fairfield, Conn., a graduate of Smith College. They were married in 1944 and lived happily together for more than 63 years.

Graduating from Yale Divinity School in 1946, the couple co-pastored two parishes in upstate New York until he accepted a call to the United Church in Chester, Conn. in 1951. In 1955, he became pastor of the Congregational Church in Wilton, Conn., which grew significantly in every respect during his tenure. During this time, he and Anne purchased hilltop property in Braintree, Vt., which they, their children and grandchildren have enjoyed for more than 50 years.

Success in Wilton placed him in a position of influence within what became the Connecticut Conference of the United Church of Christ (UCC). He was a leader in civil rights and social justice movements, both within Connecticut and nationally. He left the Wilton church to serve full time on the UCC Conference staff, principally working on housing and other social justice issues. Seeking greater visibility for the church’s social action work among corporations and government, he created the New Samaritan Corporation in 1971. New Samaritan and its affiliated management companies grew to become Connecticut’s largest nonprofit manager of housing for the aging and families.

He served two years as the acting conference minister of the UCC, before retiring in 1989. He also served for 11 years during this time on the board of directors of MacDermid Inc., a specialty chemical company based in Waterbury, Conn., acting as a boardroom advocate for corporate social and ethical responsibility. Among other awards, in 2002 he received the Benjamin Elijah Mays Award from Bates College, his alma mater, for “distinguished service to the larger, worldwide community.”

He is survived by his wife, Anne; son, Bartley Richard Higgins and wife, Charlene Liska; daughter, Lesley Hall Higgins-Biddle and husband, John Higgins-Biddle; son, Gerald Arthur Higgins and wife, Kathleen McRoberts; and daughter, Ethel Anne Higgins-Harris and husband, Calvin T. Harris Sr.; six grandchildren, Mark Russell Biddle, Kathleen Biddle Muravnick, Emily Catherine Higgins, Molly Anne Higgins-Biddle and Richard Ely Locke Higgins and Richard’s mother, Catherine Carr, and Adina Louise Salguero Higgins.