RIP - Michael Porter (STAFF, 66 - 93)

Genre-wise the film production I picture for Mum and Dad is a romantic adventure. With the casting director for Mum having easy picks with either Audrey Hepburn or Winona Ryder in the lead role.  Dad is more nuanced: not Fred Astaire from Funny Face, but maybe, as a young man, Gregory Peck in Roman Holiday or slightly more recently by Sean Connery in the Indiana Jones classic The Last Crusade.

Like Dr Jones Senior, Dad's grail odysseys were his two lifelong quests: for the Ten Commandments Herefordshire apple variety which he had lost in his youth and for the Flora of Brecknockshire, a compilation of botanical exploration, identification and recording which he started back in the 1950s.

The chronicle of Dad's search for the Ten Commandments Apple is set out in his book The Welsh Marches Pomona, published in 2005 by the Marcher Apple Network however it wasn't until his 90th birthday in June of this year that The Brecknockshire Flora quest was completed with the assistance of Jon Crellin and the support of neighbours, colleagues, family and Mum.

Dad grew up in Ewyas Harold in the south-eastern foothills of the Black Mountains, an elder brother to Alyson and son to vicar Cyril and Louise. Educated at the Cathedral School in Hereford and later at Bangor University in North Wales where he met Mum, he remained a product and lover of the Welsh Marches where he lived his life.

Contextually Dad followed the tradition of his father and grandfather - key influencers in the Woolhope Club - a die-hard group of "amateur" scientists and natural historians who dedicated their lives to exploring and recording this area: proper "renaissance" people with broad and all-encompassing interests: in art, music, conservation, cultivation and for Dad especially literature and poetry.

Dad became an educator and more than that - a favourite master at Christ College - fondly remembered and whose active method of demonstrating the physiology of frogs prior to dissections has been retold to me by Old Breconians I have come across in my work from here to London and down into the South-West over the last 40 years.

Again, following his father (who at the 1912 Stockholm Olympics won bronze medal for the 3000m) Dad was an accomplished high jumper, and the photo of him, pre-Dick Fosbury, hurdling the high jump bar was inspirational to me as a child). He coached rugby, badminton and tennis: playing team tennis and a county singles champion (whilst in his forties I remember newspaper photos in the local papers of Dad receiving trophies as Mid Wales Men's Doubles Champion).

Throughout his life he made lasting contributions to the local and national environment: in Llangynidr through the; Local History Society, the establishing of the new Burial Grounds, the Playing Fields, the reconstruction of the historic Parish Wall. In Wales nationally: as Wales recorder for the Botanical Society for the British Isles, to the National Museum of Wales and Brecon Museum, The Brecon Beacons National Parks, Brecknock Wildlife Trust and The Marcher Apple Network.

Whilst recently re-reading 2 of his books, the Pomona and Shadows in the Landscape, I am struck by his self-effacing nature - especially in light of today's social media Dad stands out for me in stark contrast as the very anti-thesis of self-promotion - in Shadows in the Landscape he relies simply on acknowledgement by the editor, and in the Pomona ( if you have lost the dust cover) by referring to himself as "the author" not by his name.....It is almost as if in the true romance-quest tradition Dad is saying that only the most keen eyed and dedicated will be able to follow his path....

But as we gather here, not saying "goodbye" but "abiento"....  for the Francophile that Dad was...and being thankful for his life... I believe more than ever in the importance of engaging the next generations and recognising for them that Dad's quests were fulfilled not only through his steadfastness, academic rigour and quiet self-belief but through us, his wider network, without whom his and Mum's journeys could not be celebrated. Dad would have loved and been so proud to be part of Harry and Ala's engagement party at the weekend and through his love for Mum, his 3 sons, his 5 grandchildren he is carried with us and he will not be a shadow in the landscape.

Eulogy for Michael Porter: Written and read by Michael's youngest son Robin