Dr. Robert Edwards Porter Jr.

Dr. Robert E. Porter, Jr. passed away peacefully on September 10, 2024 in Gainesville, Florida, where he'd resided for the past 20 years following decades of living and working in Hanover, NH and Norwich, VT. Married to his beloved wife Betty for more than 45 years, Bob was a month shy of his 90th birthday.

Bob was born in Beloit, Wisconsin on October 25, 1934. In 1956, he became one of a long line of more than 50 family members who had graduated from Beloit College including his parents and grandparents. His mother, a concert pianist, was a member of the Beloit music faculty.

Although he initially imagined charting his own course away from Beloit, Bob was drawn back to the College in 1953 after his freshman year at MIT. Once there, his own ties to Beloit grew strong. "Beloit," he said later, "is not a pass-through education....it is a shaper of human character." Twenty-eight years later, in one of the highlights of his life, he became a two-term Beloit College Trustee.

Following in his physician grandfather's footsteps, Bob decided to pursue a career in medicine and earned his M.D. from the University of Chicago in 1960. After his first year internship at the University of Iowa, he served as an Air Force flight surgeon for two years and then returned to Iowa to complete his surgical and orthopedic residencies. An appointment in orthopedic surgery at Upstate Medical Center in Syracuse, New York in 1967 and a one-year fellowship in Sheffield, England in 1971 led him to the orthopedics section of the Hitchcock Clinic at Mary Hitchcock Memorial Hospital in Hanover, N.H. in 1972. There he became an associate professor of surgery at Dartmouth Medical School in the early 1980s. As a college athlete and avid team sports fan, he had a particular interest in sports medicine and athletic training and took it upon himself to introduce arthroscopic surgery to his orthopedic practice.

Bob was deeply committed to the medical profession, particularly to teaching and mentoring. As one younger colleague wrote when Bob retired in 1999, "you have taught me wisdom, patience, judgment, principles - all the while with a sense of humor, doing the very best for our patients and being respectful."

Bob later would go on to serve as a member of the NH Medical Society Jurisprudence Committee for seven years, as President of the New Hampshire Orthopedic Society, President of the Northeast Medical Association (NEMA), and President of the New Hampshire Board of Registration and Medicine. He joined the Federation of State Medical Boards in 1990, ultimately serving as President in 1996. He also served on the National Board of Medical Examiners beginning in 1999, including as a member of the NBME executive board from 2001-2005.

The memories Bob's family and friends will cherish most are of his boundless love of learning new things, his incredible spirit of adventure, his passion for nature, his love of sports and music, and his love for his family. He and Betty traveled to all seven continents with family and friends - from the Arctic to Antarctica, and throughout Europe, Asia and Africa.

He loved sailing with family around Mount Desert Island in Maine and on one memorable day he didn't hesitate for a second to dive into 55 degree water to rescue their 4 lb toy poodle. In warmer waters they especially loved Gorda Sound in the BVI. Over many seasons as a two-person team Betty and Bob sailed the length of the Caribbean chain and then ventured to the Greek Isles in the Mediterranean, meandered through the canals in Holland, then back to northern US latitudes to sail the straits of Alaska. In 2001 they traveled the New England coast down to NYC, where they were anchored on the morning of 9/11. From the deck of their boat they could see the horror of that day and the week that followed.

They ballooned over the Masai Mara and survived a charging rhino. They marveled at the Great Wall and the pyramids. They welcomed the dawn in the ruins of Machu Picchu, all alone except for two grazing llamas. 

Bob hiked throughout his 70s, led a family kayak paddle on a Florida freshwater spring on his 80th birthday, and cruised the Inside Passage in Alaska with many of his family at age 84.

Before every adventure, he would research the geology, geography, ecology, history and culture of the area and joyfully shared all that he had learned. And he never passed a museum anywhere in the world that he didn't want to explore.

Bob had a special gift at quickly befriending almost anyone he met because he was genuinely interested in learning about them and believed that if asked about themselves everyone has an interesting story to tell.

Whenever Bob could, usually privately and quietly, he tried to make the lives of people a little better. He relished the role of facilitating opportunities for both family and friends seeking a little help. For some, his guidance and support led to cherished and life-altering experiences.

He loved all water and winter sports. He and Betty had over 100 scuba dives together on reefs worldwide, often joined by children and grandchildren. He also loved driving the boat for water-skiing on Lake Sunapee or doing the skiing himself well into his 60s. 

Bob learned to ski as a youngster in Wisconsin and never outgrew his enjoyment of the sport. In the late 1970s, he joined the US Ski Jumping team as a team physician on a training trip to Europe. During NEMA annual meetings, many in the family would join him for that organization's fantastic ski trips in New England, the Rockies and the Alps.

Through his mother, at an early age Bob developed a love of classical music. In the late 1960s, he spent two weeks of every summer in Interlochen, Michigan as a National Music Camp doctor. One of his pleasures in later years were the Opera North summer performances by the Connecticut River in New Hampshire, and the symphony season in Gainesville. He also had a huge collection of favorite films. He watched Top Gun - as far as he was concerned the greatest of all time - at decibel levels that shook the house. He said he loved the movie because it took him back to his Air Force days in the back seat of fighter jets and B-52s.

Bob loved being a grandpa and was immensely proud of all thirteen of the grandchildren. As he had done with his children, he also did with the grandchildren. He cheered and whistled the loudest at their games, meets, performances, and graduations. He attended first grade Grandparents Days and school concerts. He read them their favorite stories, shared his love of nature, drove them to school, and marveled at their creative endeavors. He took them to Red Sox games or musicals, served late-night roasted peanuts or popcorn and once offered chocolate pudding for dinner when no one was looking. At home in Vermont he would host epic kids bubble-bath parties in the hot tub.

Family trips to Jamaica were a favorite, where he loved playing golf with his son-in-law while his daughter kept score. Later in the evenings at the dinner table he would eagerly await the arrival of a sumptuous dessert, delighting all with his enthusiasm for whatever was served. On several of these trips, Bob would look up into the sky and say he wanted to come back as one of the large-winged turkey buzzards that could ride the thermals and soar over the hills. We like to think of him there now.

Bob was predeceased by his father Robert, Sr. and his mother, Marjorie Brown Leff. In addition to his loving wife Betty Robins Porter, he is survived by sisters Sue and Nan and brother John, six children - Kate, Betsy, Robert, Juliet, Robin, and Jon; thirteen grandchildren - Lily, Sam, Grace, Melissa, Nick, Eliza, Alexander, Juliet, Audra, Noelle, Jacob, JP and Caleb, great-granddaughters Maeve, Hadley and Audrey, sons-in-law Bruce, Dan and Dave, and daughters-in-law Chandra and Oksana; grandson-in-law Zach, and the many special friends and colleagues who so enriched his life.

The family would like to extend special thanks to Bob's nursing staff and caregivers and the many others who supported Bob as he neared the end. The family will celebrate Bob's life privately. Ever the Beloiter, Bob asked that any donations in his memory be directed to the Beloit College Annual Fund, Beloit College, 700 College St., Box 45, Beloit, WI 53511.