New Benefactor Robert La Porte Creates Undergraduate Scholarships
Robert La Porte began shaping his own education as a child at St. Berchmans Catholic boarding school in Marion, Iowa. Already fascinated by history, he was thrilled when the nuns trusted him enough to let him browse in their “fabulous” library. His favorite books, even then, were about European military history.
While he was still in primary school, he and his mother moved to Richland to join his father, who already had a job with General Electric, a contractor at the Hanford Project. He graduated from Richland High School in 1947, but his grades weren’t strong. Despite this, his mother insisted he enroll at Washington State College (WSU).
He enrolled in 1947 along with hundreds of returning WWII veterans. One of his first courses was modern European history taught by Professor Winston B. Thorson, who became a much-admired mentor. It didn’t take him long to decide on a major in history and a minor in English literature. However, his mother wanted him also to take sciences; so he enrolled in Chemistry and promptly flunked. After struggling academically for two and a half years at WSU, he transferred to Gonzaga University. There, he was encouraged by two brothers, Jesuit priests named Bischoff, one of whom specialized in South American history and the other in English literature. Yet, in his senior year, instead of graduating he went back to Hanford and got a job as a warehouse clerk at GE. Within a year, he was drafted into the Army during the Korean War. He primarily served in Germany near Frankfurt.
Returning to the states after the war, he found a job, again with GE, in New York City in a blueprint office and then in New Jersey. This was followed by a transfer to San Jose, California. Next he worked for General Dynamics at La Jolla for seven years as a lab tech in a metallurgy lab. Next there was a stint in Houston, Texas, for a NASA Space Center contractor, Brown and Root Company, measuring grain structure in metals. Acting on a desire to return to the Northwest, he found a job in Seattle in a Boeing Company metallurgy laboratory, where he worked until he was let go in the big 1970s lay off. He stayed on in Seattle, holding a variety of jobs with a bank, Frye Art Museum, and Swedish Hospital.
In 1992, Robert moved over the Cascades to Cle Elum, a favorite camping spot from his youth, to be closer to his mother, who still lived in Richland. After her death, he returned to Richland to his childhood home. Now Robert would love to move even closer to Pullman so he could more easily attend seminars, basketball and football games, and other events.
Throughout his life, Robert has continued to pursue his interest in history and has developed a deep respect for the value of education. A voracious reader to this day, he subscribes to history and other periodicals and reads many books a month. He has developed small libraries that focus on historical biographies, Napoleon Bonaparte, early U.S. government, and Soviet Russian history.
Through his charitable giving he supports the Calvin Coolidge Memorial Foundation, which maintains President Coolidge’s hometown, Plymouth Notch, Vermont; the Tri-Cities Union Gospel Mission; and the Central Washington Catholic Foundation.
He began discussing creating a scholarship at WSU with members of the WSU Foundation in 2005. “I had almost a spiritual edict to create this scholarship. I didn’t want to be there (WSC), but mother insisted. I did have a wonderful learning experience and Dr. Thorson was an inspiration to me. I met wonderful people. So I just had to do it. It was almost as if God himself demanded it.”
“The La Porte /Thorson Memorial Endowed Scholarship in the Social and Physical Sciences is a memorial to my parents, Clyde Scott La Porte and Helen Antoinette Heiker La Porte, and to Dr. Winston Thorson, my mentor and professor of history. There will be two scholarships, one in the physical sciences and one in the social sciences. The lifetime annuity I have created provides for me during my lifetime and then will provide $161,000 for each scholarship. My will provides that the remainder of my estate will also go to WSU.”
The Scholarship is designed to help students, primarily juniors and seniors who have proven themselves, to finish their degrees. “I hope it will make the difference for committed students between staying in school and finishing, or delaying in order to work for a while.”
New Benefactor
Robert La Porte
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