H. William Porterfield

Hubert William (Bill) Porterfield, 93, resident of Charlottesville, VA, was born September 24, 1929, in Hagerstown, MD and died February 27, 2023, at Our Lady of Peace Retirement Community in Charlottesville, VA. Proud father of five, grandfather of fifteen, and great-grandfather of seven, he is survived by them all, including: his children, W. Scott Porterfield (wife Susie Griffith), Chicago; Jeffrey L. Porterfield, Columbus, Ohio; Wendy Porterfield Modjeski (husband Ron Modjeski), Lexington, Kentucky; Todd B. Porterfield (partner Benoit Bolduc), New York City; and Marli J.P. Kerrigan (husband Jack E. Kerrigan) Great Falls, Virginia. His wife of 45 years, Linda Obenauf Porterfield (Charlottesville), also survives him.

Bill was born September 24, 1929, in Hagerstown, Maryland, to Hubert Lester Porterfield, M.D., a Hagerstown native, and Minnesotan Florence Rosalie Chenoweth, known by her stage name, “Sally.” Touring with a theater company, she stopped in Hagerstown, where she twisted her ankle and met and married the town doctor.

An only child, Bill attended public school in Hagerstown and then the Culver Military Academy where he played baseball and apparently studied. After graduation in 1947, he enrolled at the University of Virginia, where he liked to say that he became a Virginia Gentleman. Although young amongst his cohort, many of whom were returning from service in World War II, he finished UVa in three years, and went on to his father’s alma mater, Jefferson Medical College in Philadelphia, and from there to an Internship and General Surgery Training at the Akron City Hospital, Ohio. Further specialty training followed under the late Harold Trusler at Indiana University's Medical Center. Encouraged by his parents’ close friends and colleagues, Grace and Harry LeFever (MD), Bill's young family settled in Columbus, Ohio, where he joined Doctors John Terry and Charlie Trabue, and cofounded Ohio Plastic Surgeons, joined by Lester Mohler, James Ferraro, and Gerald Drabyn.

Bill became a leader and innovator in his profession both inside and outside the operating room. He became Associate Clinical Professor of Plastic Surgery at Ohio State and Director of the Plastic Surgery Joint Residency Program of Ohio State and Mount Carmel Medical Center. He developed new techniques for cleft lip and palate surgery, which were widely published and practiced. That he then served many years on the Board of Directors of Columbus Speech and Hearing is entirely fitting.

At the top of his field both locally and nationally, he was president of the Columbus Academy of Medicine; a longtime delegate to the American Medical Association; the 2005 recipient of the Columbus Medical Association's "50-Years in Medicine" Award; and the President of the American Society of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery (now ASPS) in 1982. Also in the early 1980s, he co-founded a physician-run managed care company that became Physicians Health Plan. He became its President and CEO, and chaired for two years the American Managed Care and Review Organization, based in Washington, D.C. His children are undecided as to which was the most fun, joining him on 6th Avenue in New York to celebrate his ASPS presidency or seeing his occasional appearances as co-host of the supremely local and very wide-tie 1970s television show, "Doctors on Call."

As he moved into retirement and from Columbus to Carefree, Arizona, Put-In-Bay, Ohio, and finally Charlottesville, Virginia, his activities were both (generously) serious and (deservedly) not. He and Linda endowed a Professorship in Biomedical Ethics at the University of Virginia, and a Speech and Hearing Graduate Fellowship at the University of Illinois, Linda's alma mater. An enthusiastic, convivial, and even-tempered sportsman, over the decades he played football, tennis, and baseball, skiied and golfed. In his later years he renewed his ties with UVa and cheered on their men's and women's teams across the seasons. A kid at heart, he loved his ice cream, a good laugh, and his pets. An old family photo shows the young Bill with something like a bowl-haircut, dressed in a suit with short pants, riding atop a hay wagon, accompanied by his Irish Setter, "Old Mike."

All along, he loved and appreciated time with family. He always had an unalarmed and ecumenical appreciation for young people. He never met a stranger and would gladly exchange jokes and stories over a scotch or two with new and old friends. A man always in good spirits, even in difficult times toward the end of his life, Bill would answer to queries regarding how he was doing: "pretty good for an old guy!”

A memorial service will be held on May 6 at 3:00 p.m. in Columbus at Trinity Episcopal Church, 125 East Broad Street. A reception follows from 4:00-6:00 at Tony's Restaurant, 16 West Beck Street. A private service took place in April at the Charlottesville Monticello Memorial Gardens, where he was laid to rest.

In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to Columbus Speech and Hearing and to the Alzheimer's Association. Please visit www.schoedinger.com to share memories and condolences. Funeral arrangements entrusted to SCHOEDINGER NORTHWEST.