I first heard about Jon B. Higgins when I was a kid. I was listening to one of the All India Radio channels and after the broadcast ended, the announcement named the singer as Jon B. Higgins. I was quite surprised as back then I had thought only Indians, that too South Indians, sang carnatic music. Another fact that added to the surprise was that there was no accent as such in the rendition to suggest that someone non-Indian was singing.
An article in Worldspace Voice brought back these old memories today. Here are some links providing more info on Jon Higgins:
On a slightly different note, here is an article titled “Globalization and Indian Classical Music: The North American Scene“
Ramkumar R 
Similar experience for me too. It’s amazing how little is there on the man and none is likely to come up, as he died in the early 80s. 4 years after your post, the four you mention (and your blog post) are the only few links that turn up!
The best tribute Indians that can be given to Jon Higgins, especially those from the South is nothing short of a feature film or a tele-serial. I hope somebody reads this post and gets inspiration, then the fools amongst us might rediscover the beauty of Carnatic music, rather than worship engineered music of today.
Thanks so much for this. Such an inspiring story for every student of Indian music.
Here is a permanent link to download the article “In Memory of Jon Borthwick Higgins (Asian Music)” you reference above:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B9Br6zNLNODudTJ4Rm40SUc5Tmc/view?usp=sharing