W.R. Porter, 87; 1st Black Chairman of University of Louisville Board
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Woodford Roy Porter, 87, the first black chairman of the University of Louisville Board of Trustees and a champion of healthcare, education and the arts, died Sunday after a long battle with numerous illnesses.
Porter, a grandson of slaves, was the first black person to be a member of the Louisville Board of Education and was its first black chairman.
A member of the university board for 24 years, he served four terms as chairman. He retired in 1991.
Porter helped lead a school he had not been allowed to attend, because it wasn’t integrated when he graduated from Central High School in 1936.
He went to Indiana University instead but left school to run the family business, a funeral home, after his father died.
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