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Prominent Utah physician R.O. Porter practiced medicine in Cache Valley for more than 50 years. In 1917, at age 30, he was using a Model T to make house calls throughout the valley. Before retiring from medicine at age 80 he would be president of the Utah Medical Association, dean of the University of Utah Medical School, president of the Cache Chamber of Commerce, chairman of the Utah Board of Health, USU trustee and two-time Alumni Association president and a Kiwanis Club district governor,

Dr. Porter was born on Nov. 12, 1887, in Porterville (Morgan County), Utah to farmer-educator, Charles Graves Porter, and English immigrant Betsey Amelia White. R.O. was born in a brick house built by his grandfather, John President Porter, in 1865. During his childhood, these three Porter generations lived together in the home.

The farm boy from Porterville came to Logan in 1905 to attend Utah Agricultural College. After earning a degree in Science in1912, he attended Harvard University and then earned a Medical Degree from Rush College of Medicine in Chicago in 1916. He returned to Logan to serve as professor of Physiology at the UAC.

In 1920, Dr. Porter helped establish a 15-bed Cache Valley General Hospital at172 North Main. That same year he helped form the Logan Chapter of Kiwanis Club International, an organization in which he would be active for more than forty years. He served as both Logan chapter president (1922-23) and Utah- Idaho District Governor (1929 and 196?).

He also played an active role in the Logan Chamber of Commerce and served as its president in 1923.

In late 1923 he was appointed Dean of the Medical School at the University of Utah, a position he held until 1930. He returned to private practice in Logan where he joined with four other doctors to expand Cache Valley General Hospital at a larger facility at 50 North 100 East. In 1939, after two years of study at the University of California Medical School in San Francisco, he became one of Logan's first Eye, Ear, Nose & Throat specialists. He was to practice here daily until his retirement in 1967.

Dr. Porter had a long and close association with his alma mater, Utah State University, serving as President of its Alumni Association in 1932 and again in 1953, and as a member of its Board of Trustees (1954 -1955).

He became President of the Utah Medical Association in 1956, having earlier served as a UMA council member. He was a member of the Utah State Hospital Board from1956-57, and served on the Utah State Board of Health from 1957-61, becoming Chairman in 1959. As chairman, Dr. Porter acted to expand services for the mentally ill, allowing more patients to receive treatment at home rather than in institutions. He also worked to ensure the public safety during the Army's testing of chemical agents at Dugway Proving Grounds.

He married Vivian Ericson in 1912. They had five sons: Ralph M. (Logan optician), Dr. Dean (Logan dentist), Dr. Gordon (USU professor), Dr. Alan (Tacoma anesthesiologist), and Van (Salt Lake Tribune photographer).

Dr. Porter died on April 9, 1980, in Logan at the age of 93.