Please Feel Free To Leave A Comment Or A Memory You Had With Christopher~
Christopher L. Porter, 50, died Friday, Oct 3, 2003, in New York City of pancreatic cancer. A vigil service will be held at 7 p.m. Thursday at St. Patrick's Catholic Church. A Mass of Christian burial will be celebrated at 10 a.m. Friday at St. Patricks Church, with burial at Arroyo Grande Cemetery. Father James Henry will officiate the services. A fifth-generation Californian. he was born in Santa Maria and grew up on the Central Coast. He attended St. Patricks Catholic School in Arroyo Grande, Arroyo Grande High School, San Jose State University and Cal Poly State University in San Luis Obispo. He also attended Santa Clara University, where he received a bachelors degree in fine arts; the Art Students League in New York City, where he studied artistic anatomy; San Francisco Community College, where he studied printmaking; and the Graduate School of Figurative Art of the New York Academy of Art in New York City, where he received a masters degree in fine arts. His paintings have been shown in galleries in San Francisco, Cupertino, Santa Clara and New York. A showing of Porters work will be held soon on the Central Coast. While pursuing his career in fine arts, Porter also worked as a house painter, a carpenter, a bartender and a ranch hand on his family's ranch. He was a devout Roman Catholic, a staunch Republican, an avid sports fan, a voluminous reader, a wonderful conversationalist, a dear friend and brother, a man of very strong convictions (about almost everything) and a man who could laugh at himself. He is survived by his brother and sister-in-law, Charles and Wanda Porter of Nipomo; brother John Porter of Cambria; aunt Peggy W. Porter of Arroyo Grande; uncle Byron L. Montross of Santa Barbara; and many cousins and many friends. He was preceded in death by his father Asa C. Porter in 1991 and mother Margaret C. Porter in 1997. In lieu of flowers, memorials may be made to St. Patricks Catholic School, 900 W. Branch St., Arroyo Grande, CA 93420 or Beth Israel Medical Center, Milton and Carroll Petrie Division, First Avenue at 16th Street, 4 Karpas, New York, N.Y. 10003. Arrangements are under the direction of Lady Family Mortuary and Crematory of Arroyo Grande.