James Porter; Retired Ventura High Instructor

Longtime high school teacher James Duncan McNair Porter died Thursday after a long illness. He was 86.

Born Aug. 13, 1912, in Sunnyvale, Porter was a 46-year county resident. He had previously lived in Patterson.

Porter taught high school for 51 years--in Kelseyville, Patterson and the Ventura Unified School District. He received his master’s degree in education from Stanford University and also studied at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and UC Berkeley.

In Ventura, Porter taught chemistry and physics at Ventura High School and business math at Ventura College. He retired in 1986.

Porter was a charter member of Phi Delta Kappa and a member of Poinsettia Lodge No. 633, F. & A.M., the East Ventura Lions Club, the Ventura County Camera Club, the Ventura County Gem and Mineral Society, the Ventura Professional Businessmen’s Club and First United Methodist Church of Ventura.

He is survived by his wife, Dorothy; sons Duncan of Blacksburg, Va., and Jay of Oxnard; daughter Carolyn M. Mann of Oxnard; 11 grandchildren; and three great-grandchildren.

A memorial service will be held at 3 p.m. Oct. 10 at First United Methodist Church of Ventura. The Rev. Walter Dilg will officiate.

Memorial contributions may be made to Livingston Memorial Visiting Nurses Assn., 1996 Eastman Ave., Suite 109, Ventura 93003, or to a favorite charity.

Arrangements are under the direction of the Ted Mayr Funeral Home, Ventura.