Michael William Porter

Bill to his family, Mike to his friends and colleagues, born to Connie and Santos Porter, he was one of six siblings Raine, Dawn, Bill, Christopher, Lynn and Jonathan.

Married to Deryn Edmunds, for 62 years, he leaves her, and his adult children, Graham Porter and Lindy Oddleifson, 4 grandchildren, Kyle, Stefan, Connor and Emma, as well as his surviving brothers, Christopher, and Jonathan and his wife Paddy.

He was born on the Four Rivers farm, outside Wellington, in the Cape Province, South Africa, where his parents were farming in the area at the time.

After the family moved north to the Johannesburg area, he went to High School at King Edward in Johannesburg, and started work for The Southern Life Association, where he stayed for 30 years.

He was transferred, with Deryn and a 6 month old Graham, to Cape Town where he lived in the Southern Suburbs in Plumstead, Tokai, Newlands and Claremont, and worked in the Pensions department of the (then) Southern Life Association at head office in Great Westerford, in Newlands.

After 30 years at Southern Life, He and Deryn were bitten by the travel bug, and their adventures really started. Keen caravaners, the couple departed on a travelling Sabbatical which lasted 3 years, took him and Deryn to every Caravan Association of SA registered caravan park in the Cape Province, and saw them working and managing at Piesang River Caravan Park in Plettenburg Bay, Lightleys River Cruisers in Knysna, and a while later also at the OU Skip Caravan Park in Melkbosstrand.

He and Deryn returned to Cape Town, first to a complex in Pinelands, and then to a home in Lanquedoc Road in Pinelands.

He returned to the Pensions industry to share his knowledge and experience at a time the industry was in a state of massive changes, joining Ginsburg Malan & Carsons, and worked with them on various projects in Government and Private business for a further 10 years, until his retirement and emigration to Canada in 1996.

He and Deryn lived in and around the Comox Valley from the time of their immigration in 1996, and he passed away in the Comox Valley Seniors Village, where Deryn still lives today.

The Comox Community Baptist Church was, and is, still the couple's spiritual home, he was for a time the treasurer to this congregation.

"The memory of a righteous man, will be a blessing to many", Proverbs 10, v7

He will be much missed by his Family, Friends and Colleagues.