Name David Porter | Role Professor | |
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Books On the Divide: The Many Liv, Only Connect: Three Stu, Horace's Poetic Journey, Seeking Life Whole: Willa Cat, Virginia Woolf and the Hogar | ||
David Hugh Porter (29 October 1935 – 25 March 2016) was an American academic and the fifth president of Skidmore College in Saratoga Springs, New York, serving from 1987 to 1999. Porter was a professor and lecturer of classics and music, starting his career at Carleton College in Northfield, Minnesota, where he taught from 1962 to 1987.
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Biography
Porter was born in New York City on October 29, 1935. He received a Bachelor of Arts degree from Swarthmore College in 1958, and a Ph.D. in Classics from Princeton University in 1962. After graduation he taught Classics, Music, and Liberal Arts at Carleton College in Northfield, Minnesota, served as Visiting Professor of Classics at Princeton, and returned to Carleton as President. In 1987 he became the fifth president of Skidmore and also taught Classics and Liberal Studies. After stepping down as president in 1999 he taught at Williams College and Indiana University before returning to Skidmore as Tisch Family Distinguished Professor. He retired in December, 2013. In 2011 he was awarded an honorary degree of Doctor of Humane Letters by Carleton College.
Porter was an accomplished musician. He studied piano with Edward Steuermann from 1955 to 1962 and harpsichord with Gustav Leonhardt in Amsterdam, and has performed recitals throughout the US and the UK. Porter also studied at the Philadelphia Conservatory of Music.
Porter was married twice. He married his first wife, Laudie Dimmette, in 1958. Dimmette was an accomplished flautist and professor of flute at Carleton College, where Porter also taught for twenty-five years from 1962 to 1987. Porter and Dimmette had four children. She died in 1986. The Laudie D. Porter Memorial Fund was established at Carleton College in 1986 by the Porter family. He married the former Helen Nelson in 1987.
Porter died on March 25, 2016. He was found dead on March 26, 2016 in a field near his home, which he frequented for walks. He was 80 years old.