Researching David Porter

Porter was a 2005 inductee into the Songwriters Hall of Fame, with catalog sales exceeding 400 million units. In 2015, Rolling Stone listed him among the 100 Greatest Songwriters of All Time. He is best known for songwriting, having written Sam & Dave's "Soul Man" (1968 Grammy winner), and "Hold On, I'm Comin'". His songs have been sampled in Mariah Carey's "Dreamlover" (1993 Grammy winner), and Will Smith's "Gettin' Jiggy wit It" (1999 Grammy winner).

He is also the founder of the Memphis-based Consortium MMT, a nonprofit organization seeking to develop the music industry in Memphis.

Porter has over 1700 songwriter and composer credits for a range of artists, including Aretha Franklin, James Brown, Celine Dion, Otis Redding, Drake, ZZ Top, Tom Jones, Ted Nugent, Bonnie Raitt, Wu-Tang Clan, Eminem, Patsy Cline, Albert King and Eurythmics.

Porter began naval service as a midshipman at the age of 10 years under his father, Commodore David Porter, on the frigate . For the remainder of his life, he was associated with the sea. Porter served in the Mexican War in the attack on the fort at the City of Vera Cruz. At the outbreak of the Civil War, he was part of a plan to hold Fort Pickens, near Pensacola, Florida, for the Union; its execution disrupted the effort to relieve the garrison at Fort Sumter, leading to Sumter's fall. Porter commanded an independent flotilla of mortar boats at the capture of New Orleans. Later, he was advanced to the rank of (acting) rear admiral in command of the Mississippi River Squadron, which cooperated with the army under Major General Ulysses S. Grant in the Vicksburg Campaign. After the fall of Vicksburg, he led the naval forces in the difficult Red River Campaign in Louisiana. Late in 1864, Porter was transferred from the interior to the Atlantic coast, where he led the U.S. Navy in the joint assaults on Fort Fisher, the final significant naval action of the war.

Porter worked to raise the standards of the U.S. Navy in the position of Superintendent of the Naval Academy when it was restored to Annapolis. He initiated reforms in the curriculum to increase professionalism. In the early days of President Grant's administration, Porter was de facto Secretary of the Navy. When his adoptive brother David G. Farragut was advanced from rank of vice-admiral to admiral, Porter took his previous position; likewise, when Farragut died, Porter became the second man to hold the newly created rank of admiral. He gathered a corps of like-minded officers devoted to naval reform.

Porter's administration of the Navy Department aroused powerful opposition by some in Congress, who forced the Secretary of the Navy Adolph E. Borie to resign. His replacement, George Robeson, curtailed Porter's power and eased him into semi-retirement.

Before going into Parliament he was co-founder and director of Vivid Children's Theatre, Head of Drama at Benjamin Britten High School in Lowestoft and Conservative Party Agent in Eltham, Norwich North and Waveney. After the 1997 election, he gave some support to efforts supporting the British film industry. After his defeat, he returned to teaching, this time at Kirkley High School in Lowestoft (now East Point Academy), where he became Head of Performing Arts. After he left teaching in 2011, he continued working as a senior examiner in performing arts and English and writer of exam and teaching materials.

In December 2015, he self-published a novel, Old Men's Dreams, on Amazon. In early 2018, he self-published a collection of short stories, Wild Beasts and Plague, which in turn was followed by a second anthology of short stories, Scoffers Will Come (2019) and a further novel, Detestable Things (2020). He also published his autobiography, A Rebel's Journey, for private circulation only.

All his publications are under his Walk in My Shoes imprint, with the logo of a pair of surgical boots he has to wear on account of his Charcot Marie Tooth condition, which has deformed his feet.

During his time in Parliament, some said that he never managed to completely step out of the shadow of his predecessor, the Conservative Cabinet Minister from Lowestoft, Jim Prior.

Porter had an in-depth knowledge of the fishing industry and sea defences and was considered by some opponents to be a near single-issue politician and a rebel, while frequently focusing on local issues, including rural affairs, housing, education, health, social security and consumer affairs and citizenship, for example.

On two occasions he was threatened with suspension, but was never actually suspended from the Conservative whip. He rebelled against the Government on the Maastricht Treaty and several fishing motions that he regarded as damaging to Lowestoft. The European Common Fisheries Policy he argued resulted in unfair national allocations of fish stocks and the discard policy of throwing dead fish back into the sea was preposterous, damaging the fishing industry in the longer term. Although some in the Conservative Party tried to select a different candidate after his selection in 1985, at the time the local Conservative Associations had total power of selection and retained Porter. He regularly campaigned for Britain to leave the European Common Fisheries Policy, preferring a system of local control with a yearly 'Sabbath' (ban of fishing) rotating through each sea area around the United Kingdom waters.

He served on Social Security, Employment and Education Select Committees during his decade in the Commons.

Although he always remained popular locally, he lost his seat in the 1997 Labour landslide to Bob Blizzard, a local councillor who in turn lost the seat back to the Conservatives in 2010, when Peter Aldous became MP.

Porter was born in Halton County in 1847, the son of Irish immigrants. He built and operated a sawmill in Amabel Township. In 1884, he married Eliza Chambers. Porter served as reeve for Amabel from 1880 to 1883 and in 1885. He was defeated in the general election held in 1890 but elected in an 1891 by-election held after the election of John George was overturned on appeal. He died in office in 1893.

He was born in Wandsworth, London and educated at Hertford College, Oxford. He studied for ordination at Wycliffe Hall, Oxford before a curacy in Leeds (at Wrangthorn St Augustine). He was made a deacon at Michaelmas 1929 (22 September) at his title church and ordained a priest in Advent 1930 (19 December) at Ripon Minster — both times by Edward Burroughs, Bishop of Ripon. From 1935 — in which year he announced his engagement — he was Vicar of All Saints', Highfield, Oxfordshire and then from 1943 of St Cuthbert's Church, Darlington. From there he became Rector of Church of St John the Evangelist, Edinburgh and from 1954 to 1961 Dean of Edinburgh. In 1962 he was appointed suffragan Bishop of Aston, where he remained until retirement. He was consecrated a bishop on 2 February 1962, by Michael Ramsey, Archbishop of Canterbury, at Westminster Abbey. In 1972 he retired to Brockhampton, Gloucestershire, where he died.

Born in Old Town, Maine, Porter graduated from Bangor High School in nearby Bangor. He attended Bowdoin College where, according to Time magazine, he "first won fame by catching a Harvard kickoff behind his own goal line, running it back 107 yards for a touchdown.". In 1904, he became the first student from Maine awarded a Rhodes Scholarship, and sailed to Oxford with the original group of American Rhodes scholarship-holders. Porter read history at Trinity College, Oxford, graduating in 1907, and returning to the US to join the executive leadership of YMCA, then a major evangelical association with hundreds of local chapters. Porter served from 1907 to 1915 as Secretary of YMCA's International Committee for Secondary Schools, before taking over the Student Division (which also included the college chapters) in 1915.

Porter also headed the Bible Department at the exclusive Mount Hermon School for Boys in Northfield, Massachusetts, becoming its Headmaster in 1935 when his predecessor, Elliott Speer, was murdered. He remained active in the leadership of YMCA until 1947, and was the author of several books on religion.

Porter died at his home in Abingdon, England, where he had retired. His papers, dealing primarily with his YMCA service, are preserved at the Yale University Library