Tigue was born in Orangeburg, SC, and lived his young life in Florence, SC, graduating from McClenogan High School.  He attended Marion Military Institute before he went to the Naval Academy.  After graduation from USNA, he attended the Supply School in Athens, GA and was then stationed in Key West, FL, with VX-1.

In Key West Tigue married a South Carolina girl and started his family.  He was stationed in Rota, Spain, as a Commissary Officer, which he loved.  Next he went to the University of Kansas and earned a Masters Degree in Petroleum Management and was then ordered to Newport, RI, where he was the Commanding Officer of the Fuel Depot.  In 1969 he want to Vietnam and earned a bronze star, and was promoted to Commander.  Later he was again transferred to Rota, Spain, where he was the Commanding Officer of the Fuel Depot and worked with the Base Rights Agreement protocol for the United States.  During this tour, Tigue and Betty became avid skeet and trap marksmen at a local shooting club.  In Spain he learned that he had terminal cancer.  After a long illness at Bethesda Naval Hospital near Washington, D.C., he came home to Florence, SC.  He passed away on June 4, 1974.

Tigue is survived by his wife Betty T. Snyder, two daughters, Victoria T. Maddox and Maria Tobin-Muellers, both of Greenvillle, SC, and stepson Freddie H. Herring of Charleston, SC.  He also has grandchildren Lauren, Chip and Toria.