Michael Porter OKLS #1514

I saw Deral posted about that. I was glad to be a part of that effort. RIP Mr. Porter.

I have his copy of Clark on Surveying and Boundaries, signature and all.?ÿ That was one of the items auctioned to raise funds for his transplant.?ÿ I believe Heidi was the volleyball that visited my home at the time.?ÿ That was in 2007.

Found an obituary from this past October for a Michael Porter from Wewoka, OK but don't believe that is the same one.?ÿ He is still listed on the City of Lawton web page as an employee.

I heard tell of this yesterday by phone but pending any official obit I kept quiet.?ÿ Michael was a good surveyor and a whiz with his AutoCad.?ÿ I hadn't talked to him for over a year (two?) but he seemed OK the last time we spoke.?ÿ?ÿ

RIP bro.

Found it.?ÿ Must say that the officiating minister's parents had a complete lack of imagination.

?ÿ

https://www.beckerfuneral.com/obituary/michael-porer

The first time I crossed the Red River on a northerly vector, I met RADU, Michael, and TrimbleMan. I think we met at Cracker Barrel? TM looked like Captain Caveman and I forgot the jar of vegemite that I brought for Richard. Over the years, when I saw Deral's hair, it was either shaved flat or all out. I ended up going to a Deral"s red dirt seminar which I submitted for CEUs and got approved. As well it should. I learned?ÿ lot. You might have judged Michael and Deral as Oklahoma hicks, but they were true to life, down in the dirt surveyors and knew their stuff.

This is sad news. I had the misfortune of going to high school in Lawton and when I returned in 2015 for my 40th reunion I called Micheal about meeting for a beer. It was a whirlwind weekend for me and we never made that connection and I thought... well, I'll probably attend the 50th, so I'll meet him then.?ÿ

During the 2007 fund raiser for him I won the bid on a hat, which he graciously signed. I had it on a shelf in my office and it elicited quite a few comments... "Oklahoma? What's that all about". It was nice to recount how an on-line effort among surveyors raised $70,000 from surveyors all over the world to help one of our own, way before go-fund-me.

Rest in peace Michael.

?ÿ

@mike-berry

In this your great-uncle?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_Berry_(wrestler)

Reading this article reminded me of some wrestlers I thought I had forgotten. Gorilla Monsoon and Killer Kowalski.  Those were the days, my friend.

@holy-cow

Not that I know of, although my family migrated from Kentucky to Kansas City, Kansas (home of the Chiefs!) in the early 1900s because other kin had settled there and Kentucky didn't want us anymore. By 1920 we had high tailed it to Oregon, two steps ahead of the law.

The article doesn't say where Red was from in Kansas, just that he won the '23 state title. He may be a relation. The article shows we share many traits. To wit, "turned to rule breaking..."; "most hated professional..."; "disregard for authority..." and "Berry continued his deviant behavior..."

?ÿ

@mike-berry

He was born in Conway Springs (southwest of Wichita) about 250 miles from Lawton.

Claimed Pittsburg as his hometown during his career.

Although he was born in Conway Springs in 1906, his sister Ada was born in 1908 in Missouri.  In 1910 the family was in Gas City, Kansas and had a boarder named Owen Douglas (21) who was born in Missouri.  In 1920 they lived near Pittsburg, Kansas and had a boarder named Edward French (58) who was born in Kentucky.  Red's parents, James and Ella, were both born in Missouri in 1882 and 1888.  A guess would be that Douglas and French might have been relatives.

I like the way you identify with Red's tendency to be a bad boy.  Everyone who made a living in his day as a wrestler was a bigtime entertainer.  Some were the heroes and crowd favorites while the other half were the bad guys to be booed throughout the match.  They traveled constantly between mid-size cities and small towns with occasional matches in big cities.

Sad to hear of Michael's death. When it became known that he needed a transplant back in the POB message board day, I tried to do al that I could to help his effort to raise monies. I had never met him and only knew of him as being Deral Paulk's sidekick at the City of Lawton.Deral's frequent posts about their survey projects were informative and interesting and there was always a nice pitter patter of posts in a civil and jocular manner.
In the evenings, I kept an excel sheet to track auction items and launch new items. I was surprised at the response realizing there wasn't a huge pool of participants involved. I solicited auction items fron POB advertisers and other contacts. Some donors contacted me via email. One was a Topcon management person out of Atlanta . He donated a TS and I believe my POB buddy Angelo fron Queens bought it. Later found out from the local Topcon dealer that this donor was fighting a terminal illness himself. I contacted Walt Robillard who I knew from seminars and he donated signed copies and also provided me references and contact info to other authors. Microsurvey who were launching their software donated their product.?ÿ The POB editor published an article about the fundraiser She quoted me in the article about how the online community were not going to let Michael fight this financial struggle alone.So everything started to snowball?ÿ beginning with the generous and caring community that was.
Don't know why I?ÿ check in here....probably been many months or more. Interesting to see some of the usual suspects here. Thank you?ÿ Andy for posting.
Rip Michael. We only talked once and exchanged an email but to me you were a regular guy in your OSU attire, doing excellent work for an municipal agency, teaching and involved in the profession and most of all doing an honest day's work for an honest dollar.
My condolences to his loving family,
Alan Roberts aka Muddy Waters aka Robert Hill