Porter Endowment Encourages Students to Learn About the World

Timothy Porter '68

Timothy Porter ’68 wants to encourage students to encounter and appreciate other cultures in what he calls “a diverse and increasingly interconnected and interdependent world.” Porter thinks students can become comfortable with other cultures by traveling abroad and by in-depth involvement in and study of other countries. To encourage student travel and study abroad, Porter has made a gift to the College to establish “The Ann and Timothy Porter Endowment in Honor of Ann Joyce, Harry Mahoney, and Gabriel Bennett,” three ancestors, who reflect his family’s long association with the Jesuits, and his own multicultural roots.

Porter, who is Vice President of Labor, Employment, and Environmental Law at AT&T, has traveled extensively. He travels for business and pleasure, and recalls his first international travel experience, in 1972, and how it permanently changed his thinking about the world. At the time Porter was working as an administrator for an African-American theatre company in New York’s East Village. The company was invited to participate in the cultural portion of the 1972 Olympic Games in Munich, Germany, where they presented two plays over the course of a couple of weeks.

Porter remembers, “We left Munich and returned to the States at the conclusion of the cultural portion of the Olympics, shortly before the games began. I had only been back in New York for a day or so when the Israeli athletes were taken hostage. Later they were killed by extremists who had transported the Middle East conflict to what was to have been a neutral international venue in the Bavarian capitol. Like the rest of the world, I was stunned…One could not help thinking about the multiple currents from other parts of the world intersecting in that one place.” This experience contributed to Porter’s view that “we must think globally and as citizens of a world that extends beyond our own borders,” and that immersion in another country can be an important part of the undergraduate liberal arts experience.

The Porter Endowment was created to encourage students to study abroad by offsetting some of the cost associated with travel. The fund is named in memory of three of Porter’s ancestors, who symbolize his family's long involvement with and service to the Jesuits, and who lived lives that were impacted by the confluence of social and political events during an earlier period of global trade and expansion. These ancestors are also emblematic of “the complexity of issues related to identity and the resilience and adaptability of the human spirit in the face of radically changed circumstance and profoundly new cultural experiences.” The three ancestors are: Ann Joyce, Harry Mahoney, and Gabriel Bennett.

Ann Joyce, Porter’s maternal great-grandmother eleven generations back, was an indentured servant of Irish descent who arrived in Md. in the 1600's, in the service of the Calvert family. Her family’s indenture was later transferred to the Jesuits. Harry Mahoney, a descendant of Ann Joyce, was Porter’s great great great grandfather. While engaged by the Jesuits at St. Inigoes Manor in Southern Maryland, Mahoney is credited with playing a major role in preserving some of the property of the Manor during a raid by British forces in the War of 1812. By this time the family was of both African and Irish descent.

Gabriel Bennett was Porter’s maternal grandfather's brother, and Mahoney's great grandson. He and Porter’s grandfather came to Woodstock, Md. shortly before the turn of the 20th century, to work at Woodstock College, the Jesuit theological seminary there. Bennett worked at the college until he was 90 years old. He died in 1974 at the age of 102, two weeks after Porter graduated from New York University Law School. Bennett’s more than 50 years of service to Woodstock College marked some 300 years of continuous service by Porter’s family to the Jesuits in the New World.

Porter hopes his gift to the College will help undergraduates prepare for life in the world: “Those who are comfortable functioning in a diverse environment, who embrace it and are not afraid of other cultures and other ways of seeing things, have a much greater chance of contributing to and thriving in today’s world.” Porter and his wife, Ann, live in New York City. Their children are Timothy and Lauren.