Rue Porter, who spent more than a decade on the East Newton R-6 Board of Education, died Saturday at age 77.
I knew Rue more from his days as the head of the Granby Summer Recreation program. He was behind home plate in many of the games I played from Little League through playing for 13 and 14-year-old and 15 and 16-year-old baseball teams. Though I gave him ample reason over the years, he never kicked me out of a game (others did from time to time).
He also was kind enough to get me started in umpiring as I worked some games on the bases for him, then later started working behind home plate, something I did for more than a decade.
Though those things happened more than three decades ago, they remain fresh in my memory. Rue Porter brought joy to a lot of people over the years through his management of the summer program. I was lucky enough to be among that number.
I too have many fond memories of Rue behind the plate at many of my games growing up. If we were missing an umpire at game time, you could run across the street and get Rue. He would be right over and sometimes he didn't even put his shoes on first. We sure loved him!
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