Henry Kirke Porter

Henry Kirke Porter was born in Concord, New Hampshire, on November 24 1840. In 1860, he graduated from Brown University, in Providence, Rhode Island. He also helped found the YMCA that year. He attended the Newton Theological Seminary in Newton Center, Massachusetts.

In 1862, he enlisted in the Forty-fifth Regiment, Massachusetts Volunteer Militia, and was mustered out in July 1863.

He continued his theological training at the Rochester Theological Seminary in Rochester, New York, but in 1866 he was given a gift of $20,000 by his father, which changed the course of his life.

He invested that money with a partner, John Y. Smith , and formed the Smith & Porter Machine works. They opened a small shop in Pittsburgh, which grew to become H. K. Porter, Inc. He continued as President of the company until his death at age 81.

He was President of the Pittsburgh YMCA from 1868 to 1887, and was President of the Western Pennsylvania Institue for the Blind in 1904. He served in the United States House of Representatives in the Fifty-eighth Congress from 1903 to 1905.

He died on April 10 1921, in Washington, DC, and was buried in the Allegheny Cemetery, in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.