Thursday, July 5, 2012

Leon H. Porter – In Memoriam

Leon Horace Porter, a veteran reprographer who, considering mergers and acquisitions, worked for the same company for 50+ years, passed away a few days ago in his hometown, Washington, D.C. The sad news of Leon’s passing was brought to my attention by Derrick Williams, a long-time business associate and friend and former co-worker of Leon’s.

Leon started his career in the reprographics industry, in 1956 or 1957, at Max Scher Blueprint Co. in downtown Washington D.C. When Max Scher Blueprint merged with Rowley’s Blueprint Service (forming Rowley-Scher Reprographics), Leon continued on with Rowley-Scher. Rowley-Scher’s name was later changed to Reprographics Technologies Inc (RTI). When RTI was acquired by Darras McCord, Leon continued on with RTI. When Darras sold RTI to American Reprographics Co (ARC), Leon continued on with ARC (it was still called RTI at that time.)

Leon was a veteran of the U.S. Army, having served in Germany sometime around 1962.

Leon was a teammate that everyone could always count on. No matter what the production demands were – nights, weekends, holidays, you could always count on Leon to pitch in. John Scher Zeller, ex-President of Rowley-Scher Reprographics, worked with Leon for nearly 27 years, and I know that the news of Leon’s passing was very sad news for John (and, I’m sure, for anyone who had the pleasure of knowing Leon.)

There is no question in my mind that you would be hard pressed to find anyone with the exemplary work-ethic Leon Porter had.

May he rest in peace.

Link to Memorial Service document:

https://docs.google.com/open?id=0B81al4kFAU9Jc0ZWNkNFaDZ3NzQ


1 comment:

  1. For those of you who had the pleasure of knowing him, I am certain would agree – he was a remarkable man in many ways . Knowing him personally as I did for many years, I am well aware of the difference he made in the lives of many people, mine included. He will be dearly missed.

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