Over the weekend, graduates of James Monroe High School in the 1970s, 80s and 90s gathered in memory of Tom Porton, a beloved longtime English teacher and student activities coordinator who died earlier this year.
Porton, who was inducted into the National Teachers Hall of Fame in 1995, touched the lives of countless students in his almost 50-year career. Many former students who adored him turned out even though they hadn’t seen him in decades.
Porton died July 12 at age 74 after a period of failing health. Many paid tribute to him before and after his death, including in a July segment on Bronx Buzz with Gary Axelbanx, who was a friend of Porton’s. He was also featured last year in the Bronx Times for creating a Kindness Club, even as his health was poor, at the Kittay Senior Apartments where he lived.
Jesus Rojas, who graduated in 1990, said Porton was never his teacher, but he remembered him fondly for taking charge of senior class activities, including prom, class t-shirts and graduation.
“He was a good man, a lovely person,” Rojas told the Bronx Times.
Porton was recently memorialized in the New York Times as a “Hall of Fame teacher on a humanitarian mission.” He had seemingly boundless energy and sparked a love of literature, theater, music and social activism that brought out young people’s talents and voices along the way.
“He was going to showcase every student who wanted to shine their light onstage,” said Rosemary Rivera, class of 1986. While this effort sometimes resulted in hours long talent shows that ended after midnight, the school community was happy to oblige.
In addition to Porton’s regular course load, he organized all manner of school activities, from blood drives to voter registration to peer tutoring to an Improv Olympics, said Rivera.
He was best known for his work leading students in an effort to educate the community about HIV and AIDS, whether in other schools or on the streets. In a 1995 video with Axelbank, who was a host for BronxNet at the time, Monroe peer educators went into the neighborhood with information and posters on condom safety and support services for community members.
“The kids felt that AIDS and HIV education was certainly something that was top priority among their generation, and they wanted to do something about saving lives,” Porton said in the video.
During the segment, the group happened to encounter a man who said he was HIV positive and that he respected the students’ efforts.
“I think what this group of people are doing here is very important and essential,” the man said. “Youth are the ones that are most affected, and those are the ones that most need to be reached at this time.”
In an old audio clip played at the memorial, Porton said he wanted to be “a teacher that brought the class into the community and the community into the classroom,” and he achieved that goal to the fullest degree, said former students.
Equan Green, class of 1995, said Porton got him to sing in a group called Ladies and Gentlemen of Soul that performed at public housing events and senior centers. Porton also took Green and others to Broadway shows, which was Green’s first exposure to professional theater.
“If we needed anything, [Porton] was there,” he said.
At the ceremony, several former students spoke onstage in fond remembrance of Porton, including Michelle Washington, who is now a professor of early childhood education and credits Porton with setting her on the path to becoming a skilled, respected teacher.
“The flowers could never be enough for who he was,” said Washington, class of 1970.
During those turbulent years at Monroe, the students were “rockers, hippies and militants” who wore bell bottoms, dashikis and afros, Washington said. “We claimed our identity on every single level, and he allowed us to do so.”
She said it was immediately clear that Porton was a different kind of teacher. Instead of the suit and tie that was customary for educators back then, he wore multipocketed vests and carried a leather bag that Washington said could be considered a “man purse.”
Under Porton, students studied song lyrics to learn grammar and critiquing skills, including days spent examining the nine-minute-long hit “American Pie” by Don McLean. The class was often loud, creative and different than anyone else’s. “I don’t know if any other teacher liked him,” Washington said with a laugh. But to students, Porton was ahead of his time and gifted in relating to young people.
“This man was an angel among us,” she said.
Reach Emily Swanson at eswanson@schnepsmedia.com or (646) 717-0015. For more coverage, follow us on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram @bronxtimes
