Belfast residents pay tribute to late artist, physicist Porter

BELFAST – Friends and fellow revelers in the unknown gathered Thursday to pay tribute to artist and physicist Bern Porter, a force of nature whose 93 years were filled with fun, disillusion and a profound love of all forms of art.

He died last week in Belfast.

Born near Houlton in 1911, Porter earned a master’s degree in physics from Brown University and worked on the Manhattan Project to develop the atomic bomb. He became disillusioned with science after the weapon was dropped on Japanese cities, so he focused on art.

He ran a bookstore and gallery in the San Francisco area that specialized in abstract and surreal art. Then Porter became one of the most recognizable figures in Belfast, where he moved permanently in the early 1970s.

Those attending a service Thursday morning at a local funeral home spoke with awe of the curmudgeon.

They figured that while he may have left the physical world, his spirit is wherever in the ether there is an art opening and free food.

Although known for his combative, crusty and quirky personality, Porter also was a lovable codger who enjoyed nothing better than getting a rise out of an audience or challenging the politically correct. He had no difficulty identifying political gasbags. He also could turn on the charm when needed.

“He was a lot of fun and an incredible dancer,” theatrical producer Mary Weaver recalled. “He was ready to party anytime you wanted. He was about love, as crazy as he was. He loved Belfast, he loved the people he met here, and he loved the people he brought here from all over.”

His nephew, Barry Porter, recalled encountering him in the 1950s, standing in front of Ray & Ola’s soda shop in Belfast. He was dressed in a tuxedo and regaling a group of high school students. Porter had come to town to look up an old college classmate. Although his nephew had never met him, he knew immediately, “That’s got to be Bern.”

“He probably made a wonderful contribution to humanity in a way we’ll probably never know,” said Porter.

Along with tuxedos, Porter was known to walk the streets in flowing robes, sparkling gowns and even a pink pants suit on more than one occasion. In his later years, he was usually hunched over his cane, wrapped in layers of clothing, wearing brightly colored socks for gloves.

“My major focus is to carry on some of the principles of fusing physics with poetry and humanity,” he once said. “And by physics I don’t mean a laxative.”

Born at Porter Settlement outside Houlton, he went on to Colby College in Waterville, where he graduated Phi Beta Kappa. With his master’s degree in physics, he worked on the precursor television picture tube. Then, he was drafted into government service in World War II and the Manhattan Project.

Porter wrote more than 200 books and created works of art that are in university libraries and private collections. A biography of Porter written by James Scheville in 1992 is titled “Where to Go, What to Do, When You Are Bern Porter.” A Google search on the Internet will turn up more than 40,000 entries on Porter.

Porter was named Belfast’s poet laureate by Mayor Michael Hurley.

Hurley, who was a saloonkeeper before venturing into politics, recalled that Porter was a fixture at his bar. He said Porter was known to regale diners with extemporaneous poetry readings, all the while filling his pockets with sugar packets. He was the first to arrive at any art opening and always left with his pockets filled with food.

Hurley recalled the photographer Richard Norton telling him of a trip to New York City where Norton came upon a poster for a Porter poetry reading. Norton decided to attend.

“There were 250 people hanging on his every word,” Hurley said. “He had a huge reputation in the world and often we didn’t know about that.”

Pam Gross of the Belfast Unitarian Universalist Church led the tribute to Porter. Gross said his ability to create works of art from objects he found on the side of the road was inspiring.

“He saw art in human creation that most of us would walk by every day,” Gross said. “He found humanity in the mundane.”