A&M-C CHEMISTRY ALUMNUS VISITS CAMPUS AFTER 55 YEARS

For Immediate Release/09-19-06/Lorraine Pace

COMMERCE, Texas - Kenneth Porter, Texas A&M University-Commerce alumnus from Irving, returned to campus to share his 50-year career as a chemist with students.

Porter was chief of material and process labs for Bell Helicopter Textron, retiring in 1991.

"I learned all the chemistry I ever needed at this campus," says Porter, who shared how the science advanced from wet to instrument chemistry.

"It's gotten a lot smarter and quicker."

When asked by a student why he chose to be a chemist, he replied, "I don't know. It was luck. It is a choice I never regretted. It far exceeded anything I had ever dreamed about. Chemistry took me all over the world."

Porter recalls being handed a beaker by a professor who asked him what chemical it contained. He told the professor what it was, and the professor replied, "Prove it."

It was a lesson Porter never forgot.

"The campus has changed so much with all the new buildings, it looks like new," he says. "Even the road getting here has changed."

Porter was invited to return to A&M-Commerce to share his perspective on being a chemist by Dr. Nenad Kosti_, chemistry head.

Porter also advised students about what could go wrong or be misinterpreted, encouraging them to find new solutions.

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