David Porter remembered with humor, love

Approximately 450 people gathered at Skidmore’s Arthur Zankel Music Center Friday, April 8, to remember and celebrate David H. Porter, Skidmore’s fifth president, who died March 26. In words and music, a group of distinguished guests recalled Porter the friend, father, scholar, musician, teacher and college president with humor and deep affection.

An essay by the Porter family published in the program for the service explained, “Three passions defined David’s career:  a love of words, a love of music, and an unswerving devotion to education and its institutions.” Speakers at the event, drawn from all walks of David’s life, reinforced these themes with their recollections. Among the most touching were the remarks delivered by the eldest Porter child, David's son, Hugh, who focused on David as a father.

The Rev. Thomas Davis Jr., emeritus chaplain of Skidmore, said in his welcome, “Outsiders cannot image how much we will miss this man…. For so many, his loss is unbearable; he left a profound and enduring legacy.” Davis recalled the citation read at David’s final faculty meeting by Professor Ralph Ciancio:  “May all your oak trees grow tall, with many acorns at the top, and be filled in the middle with the honey of bees."

President Philip A. Glotzbach focused on a shared interest: the presidency of Skidmore College. Said Glotzbach, “David was a great college president because he felt a deep and personal bond with Skidmore’s students, faculty, and alumni…. He was justifiably proud of how very far Skidmore had traveled on its institutional odyssey with him as the helmsman.”

Eberhard Faber shared stories from an enduring, lifelong friendship that featured many shared interests and what he called “remarkably similar paths.”  He called Porter’s passing “a terrible loss, but he lived a wonderful life. He had the heart of a lion:  huge and full of love. We shall not see his like again.”

Porter’s career was spent largely at two colleges:  Carleton in Northfield, Minn., where he taught from 1962 to 1987 and served briefly as president; and Skidmore, where he was president from 1987 to 1999 and also taught for many years. Gary Iseminger, Lewis Professor Emeritus of Philosophy and Liberal Learning at Carleton, recalled representing the college at Porter’s Skidmore inauguration. Said Iseminger, “He and I arrived at Carleton on the same day in 1962. Today I bear the grief of the students and faculty of Carleton.” Noting that the theme of play infused all that Porter did, Iseminger repeated what Porter said when he received an honorary degree from Carleton in 2011: “Keep playing, especially with ideas.” 

Iseminger continued, “We at Carleton suffered the loss of David before. We thought we had loaned or were sharing him with Skidmore. If we were once rivals for David, we are now united in sorrow.”

Judith Pick Eissner ’64, Skidmore trustee emerita, led the search committee that was convened to find a new president for the College following the retirement of Joseph C. Palamountain Jr. She vividly recalled the first time the group met Porter.  “In October 1986 we spent eight hours in a motel near the Albany airport on a rainy day. It was less than auspicious. David literally bounded in our presence. He knew Skidmore, having performed here once. He was sharply intelligent and deeply caring. We’d met our next president and the rest was history.”

Chair of Skidmore’s Board of Trustees while Porter was president, Eissner said, “I so admired his intellect, humor, and boundless energy. We were both young leaders with similar goals. David transformed Skidmore. He was beloved on our campus and I daresay at other campuses where he worked.”

Hugh Porter's remarks—loving, funny, and heartfelt—told the story of David as a family man and centered on the theme of home.

“Home and family were really important to Dad,” said Hugh. “Carleton was his first great adult voyage, the only place that allowed Dad to teach classics and piano. Home there was a Victorian at 202 Elm.” But there were other “homes” as well: a VW camper for family vacations, Rome, the family dinner table. His point:  home was where their father was, and he kept it lively, challenging, and fun.

Hugh Porter concluded, “Without Dad, home will be harder to find. He’s at rest but he’s not home. He’s walked around heaven several times, listened critically to the angels and found them…sentimental.”

Parker Diggory, director of Skidmore’s Office of Religious and Spiritual Life, introduced herself as “a kid of a faculty member whom David Porter nurtured as president.” She said, “When we gather in places like this at times like this, we listen for stories to find our memories of the person we lost. We see in stories from people we never met the David Porter we also knew.” She encouraged those in attendance, “Continue to share stories of recognition and those stories or memories that only you have.”

Musical selections performed by Porter’s children and grandchildren were interspersed throughout the hour-long service.

Porter, 80, died following an accidental fall. Please click here for the original announcement of his passing.

For those wishing to make memorial donations to Skidmore’s David and Helen Porter Scholarship Fund, please click here. Those who wish to send written condolences to the Porter family may do so at this special page.  

A video featuring archival footage, excerpts from an oral history by Porter, and reminders of his music and puns is one of two ways that Skidmore is remembering David Porter this spring. A Lucy Scriber Library exhibition titled “Remembering David Porter” looks back on his years at Skidmore and the impact he had on the College and its people. Featuring a number of photographs and tributes from family, friends, and colleagues, the exhibition will be on display through June on the first floor lobby of Scribner Library.
(Photo gallery by Eric Jenks ’08)