I attended the memorial service for David last Friday in the concert hall
at Skidmore College. Here is a link to a tape of the event:
http://livestream.com/SkidmoreCollege/events/5088636 Marvelous slide show,
much music by his children and grandchildren, a reading from *The Song of
the Lark*, tributes by people from Skidmore, Carleton, David's best friend
from 1st grade, and his eldest son, Hugh. There was also an obituary in
yesterday's NY Times:
http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/nytimes/obituary.aspx?page=lifestory&pid=179569350
I mourn his loss and miss him terribly.

Lucy Marks



On Mon, Apr 11, 2016 at 12:56 PM, Mark Madigan <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

> To the 5 Bank Street Community:
>
> As Andy wrote eloquently last week, David Porter will be dearly missed by
> the Cather community. For a man who had achieved so much as a scholar,
> musician, and college president, he was an extraordinarily humble man. In
> conversation, he was always more interested in talking about what projects
> you were working on, what was happening in your  life, than talking about
> himself. How poignant it was, then, to see David's letter below, which
> appeared in the latest *New York Times Book Review*. I know I speak for
> many in saying that I am grateful for having known David Porter and for the
> gift of his scholarship on Willa Cather
>
> Mark Madigan
>
>
>
> *On Broadway*
>
> To the Editor:
>
> Ada Calhoun’s review of Olivia Laing’s “The Lonely City: Adventures in
> the Art of Being Alone”
> <http://www.nytimes.com/2016/03/20/books/review/the-lonely-city-by-olivia-laing.html> (March
> 20) brought back my teenage encounter with New York City. During the
> summers of the ’50s my parents would head to Connecticut for the weekends,
> leaving me in charge of the cat and the apartment. I’d practice the piano
> until I was weary or frustrated, then head for a local bookstore or movie
> theater, but mainly I’d relish simply having the city to myself. I’d walk
> down Broadway to the New Asia Restaurant at 112th Street, where for 85
> cents I could have shrimp with lobster sauce. After dinner I’d continue
> down Broadway enjoying the people I saw and the diverse neighborhoods
> through which I passed.
>
> A few years later at Swarthmore College, when I read the Satire where
> Horace describes his daily delight in walking the streets of Rome, savoring
> their myriad fascinations, it all felt very familiar: “Quacumque libido est /
> incedo solus,” he begins: “Wherever I please, I go alone.”
>
> DAVID PORTER
>
> SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y.
>
>
>
>
>