In the years I knew him, Oregon attorney Charles Porter (Charley to most of us) seemed physically frail. But when he died earlier this month, he left – in Lincolnesque terms – an empty spot against the sky, as if a giant Oregon fir had fallen.
As friend and foe (he was a politician, so he had both) remember, Charley’s major impact on Eugene was his success in creating another empty spot on the horizon – an area once occupied by the Christian cross illegally placed on public property of Skinner Butte.
Like a modern Don Quixote, he pursued goals that to some seemed remote from reality. His last was the effort, following strict legal guidelines, to propose impeachment of five Supreme Court Justices he felt had illegally appointed George Bush president in 2000. That was not inconsistent with the way he pursued justice – even at the risk of physical harm to him – when he was a Congressman.
I have a grainy, black and white videotape he gave me of his appearance in 1959 on the still surviving network program, “Meet the Press.” In it, he acknowledged that, on advice of capitol police, he carried a sidearm for protection. He needed it because one of the Latin American despots whom he opposed, Trujillo of the Dominican Republic, had Charley marked as a target of one of the hit men he used to maintain his power. The three hosts for the program of that time tried to put Porter on the spot. Even though he was a brand new Congressman in his late 30s, he successfully parried their every challenge, and succeeded in making his points before a national audience.
Charley never had the image of a knight in shining armor. Yet he always seemed to be riding the white horse of an earnest Don Quixote, with fairness and justice as guidelines for what he did. New though he was to Washington during his one term as Congressman from the 40th District (1956-60), Charley was not shy about going after those who ignored the people while serving big money powerbrokers.
Latin America was his special concern, and Trujillo not the only dictator to feel his impact. Decades before Chavez emerged, Porter met with Venezuelan President Betancourt as he sought to democratize neighbors south of the border. He told me of his admiration for Cuba’s Castro, whom he felt was forced into some dictatorial behavior by the arrogance of a U.S. government unsuccessful in destroying the tiny island off the Florida coast.
An Oregon native, born in Klamath Falls, Charley returned from Washington to Eugene for the last 45 years of his life. Yet he was not forgotten in the city of power. His stature remained high at the Washington Post, which devoted a sixth of a page to his obituary.
Porter was a founder of the Wayne Morse Historical Park, honoring the former University of Oregon Law dean known for gadfly qualities that came to be part of the Porter persona. More than once I heard him speak proudly about how “Wayne would have been with me in working to save separation of church and state on Skinner Butte, and to bring justice to those Justices who wrongly appointed George Bush president.”
Now his white horse has been led to pasture. But whenever courage is shown in the face of powerful self-interest, we in Oregon can be reminded of Charley Porter.
 

George Beres worked with Charles Porter on the Wayne Morse Historical Park Board.