PORTER, PHILIP WYLIE (7 Aug. 1900-20 May 1985), reporter, columnist, and editor at the PLAIN DEALER for 44 years, was born in Portsmouth, Va., to Albert S. and Lena Edmonds Porter. He moved with his family to LAKEWOOD in 1913. As a high school junior, he got a summer job at the CLEVELAND LEADER and after graduation attended Ohio State University, majoring in journalism, working as the campus correspondent for the Plain Dealer during the academic year and as staff police reporter during the summer. He joined the Plain Dealer after graduation in 1922 as a general-assignment reporter, was promoted to city editor and began his "Inside the News in Cleveland" column in 1929, and made news editor in 1936. After military service during WORLD WAR II, he became Plain Dealer Sunday editor, managing editor, and, in 1963, executive editor. He retired in 1966 but continued writing a column for the SUN NEWSPAPERS until 1983.
Porter authored 2 books, The Reporter and the News (1935) and Cleveland: Confused City on a Seesaw (1976). In 1979, he edited The Best of Loveland, a compilation of pieces by his Plain Dealer colleague, ROELIF LOVELAND. Porter helped found the City Club Forum Foundation (1941) and became a charter member of the City Club Hall of Fame in 1985. He married 3 times, to Annanette Blue in 1922, Helene Betschart in 1945, and Dorothy Rutka Kennon in 1960. He had 3 daughters, Phoebe Ann, Susan Wood, and Molly Schaeffer. He and his third wife were victims of a double homicide in 1985. Ted Soke and his son, Donald, were convicted of the murders in 1991. Ted Stoke's conviction was upheld at a retrial the following year.
Porter, Philip. Cleveland (1976).