82. Reg Porter - A Man and His Garden

Reg Porter is an Islander who has devoted a significant part of his life to the study and preservation of Prince Edward Island heritage, especially its architecture. His childhood was spent in Tignish with his grandparents, where he received his early education. He then attended high school in Montreal and began his university studies with the Jesuits at Loyola College. He continued his education at Mount Allison University where he took degrees in Classical Civilisation and Education.

He became Librarian and Director of the Resource Centre at Tantramar Regional High School in Sackville New Brunswick for eight years. During that time he introduced and taught the equivalent of a first-year university course in the History of Art. In 1979 he was invited by Mount Allison University to become Research Associate at the Centre for Canadian Studies, and Lecturer in Education, teaching courses in Social Studies Methodology and Audio-Visual Theory and Practice. He also began research projects in local historical topography.

He returned to PEI in 1982 and until 1988 worked at the Heritage Foundation (now the PEI Museum) as Curator of Exhibits and Public Programmes. In 1989 he became self-employed as a Heritage Consultant and spent the next ten years working in museum planning, archaeological survey, and historic building restoration. From 1987-97, he was also a Sessional Lecturer at the University of Prince Edward Island, teaching courses in Art History.

In 2000, in poor health, he retired to Belle River where he lives, with his cats, in a late Victorian farmhouse, which was restored and filled with the happy and inspiring accumulations of a lifetime. He planned and constructed an enclosed formal garden – a hortus conclusus – whose geometry comforts him. In the past twenty years he has enjoyed going out to give public lectures and trying to complete several manuscript projects on Island Heritage. For a number of years, he wrote about a dozen articles for RED Magazine and produced substantial manuscripts about various aspects of Island architecture. His most recent project – which he hopes will bring him to the limits of his life – is a heritage blog where he recreates the major lectures, he gave during the past fifty years. He believes that the ultimate sweetness of living is sharing one’s passions with others.

Find Reg online:

regporter.com

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