Thomas Hudson Porter

Thomas Hudson Porter was born in Bethany, Oklahoma on November 30, 1930 to Grady and Ida Porter. The angels took him from us the evening of June 11, 2018. He is survived by his beloved wife of 67 years, Peggy Ann Porter. He leaves behind his daughter, Coralaine Porter and son Cary Porter and daughter-in-law Cheryl. He also has 3 grandsons: Kelly and his girlfriend, Morgan Rains, Shawn and his son Rory and Christopher and his wife Jenny Porter. Shawn's Son Rory was his only great grandchild. His last days were spent at his home that he built in Lake Don Pedro. He left us after saying all his goodbyes and after putting all his affairs in order. He died of natural causes of old age. He came from living in tents as a child of migrant farm workers to being a successful businessman and real estate developer. He helped change and direct the growth of the state he loved so much.

Tom Porter was part of the mass migration of the desperate people leaving the Oklahoma Dust Bowl during The Great Depression. His family left Oklahoma with little Tommy when he was eight months old. It took his family over one year to work their way from one labor camp to the next to get to California. His first memories in life were of this journey. He always said he could remember vividly what happened in his life since the age of eight months! This is born out by his recollections in his autobiography, "I Remember" about his early life whereby he gives a firsthand account of what happened on this journey.

His life in California began in various labor camps around the Bakersfield area with outside living conditions for most of his childhood. The whole family did back breaking work in the fields consisting of mostly picking cotton. This grueling work required a seven days a week commitment just to have enough to barely put food on the table. They lived this hand to mouth existence for many years living in tents and substandard houses many times with dirt floors and no modern amenities. These were hard times.

As desperate as these times were there were no safety nets. If you did not work, you and your children did not eat. People were starving to death. If you had a severe medical problem you lived and/or died with it. There was absolutely no help for the "Okies". Tom was a fully self supporting member of his family starting at the age of nine. He sold vegetables door to door! This started his life pattern of working with strangers towards a mutually beneficial goal. He loved people and early on took on the responsibility of being the guy who worked night and day to create jobs and opportunities for others. This is how he wanted to make his living!

The farm life was not for Tom Porter so he joined the Navy barely at the age of seventeen after working various farm jobs since early childhood he saw a "barnstormer" pilot selling $5.00 rides literally crash before his very eyes. He watched the pilot get out of the plane only to get another passenger and go right back into the air! Tom Porter was hooked. He wanted to be a pilot! He subsequently owned many planes and two jets used in the course of his life as a Real Estate Developer. He was one of handful developers that used their own private jets in their work, but the only one who was licensed to fly his own Jet with no copilot. The Navy was his ticket for the start of this wonderful life he led with dream of being a pilot his first big goal in life.

He had four separate jobs while in the Navy, he worked 40 hours a week at Ryan Aeronautical in the evenings. The Navy did not even know he had this job! At the same time he was the Base Postmaster, Electronic Storekeeper and Combat Base Airman (he worked as the radio airman on the plane). While he was doing all this he was, in his spare time buying and selling cars to the other Navy men as a side business. He was taking advantage of the rationing of cars in the buildup to the Korean War. New car production ceased for a time in the beginning of the war. He provided credit and cars to these men, fixing used cars up and selling them! All of this at the age of twenty! He was well on his way to being a "rich businessman" as he told his Mother of his future dreams while working in the fields with her.

When he left the Navy they tried to entice him to sign on for seven more years by promising he could finally pursue his dream of being a fighter pilot. The Navy had waited too long to recognize his talent and he was ready to move on. He told them he will someday have his own plane and that he would use it in his work. As all the many grandiose statements he would make about his future all came true. This was the beginning of the pattern of him talking about doing amazing projects and then actually putting them together. He was man of his word!

When he left the Navy he subsequently met his future wife to be Peggy Ann. Her father resisted the idea of his fifteen year old daughter dating this "Sailor", he forbid her to see him and thereby forced this young couple to examine their prospects. He even forbid Peggy to even go to church. That was the last straw! Upon urgent coaxing from Mrs. King, Tom Porter's future Mother-in-Law, and Mrs. King's mother Momoo they eloped with only $88.00 in their pockets. Sixty years later Tom admitted that he also owned outright, the car they were driving, a brand new Ford! Peggy being only sixteen years of age and Tom was 21. They subsequently had Cary Porter and Coralaine Porter, their two children at a very young age. Cary got to go to high school as a baby!

Tom was always a natural born salesman. He sold everything from vegetables to later everything from dishes to encyclopedias door to door. No one ever excelled beyond him so he was always made a trainer and subsequently an office manager of the various business he was involved with. This is how he learned the basic principles of running a successful business. Along with all this, he was taking classes at Fresno State College working towards his college degree in law and then later switched to business.

His economics professor who he adored was asked advice on what path for Tom to take for the future. He asked Tom what he was doing to make a living having two children and working and going to school full time! The juggle of all this was almost impossible! The professor asked him about his dreams of being a business man and of his income sources and amounts. When the professor found out Tom had made 16 K that summer working part time as a salesman (twice what the professor made in a whole year in 1957!). The professor told him "Those who can't do teach". Fresno State had nothing to offer him at that point according to the professor. "You don't need a degree to do what you are going to do because you are partaking of the biggest and best school in the world, The School of Life"! "Go do it. You are going to change the world"!

He sold insurance for The Independent Order of Foresters. He became the youngest manager in the history of that company making 28K a year in 1957 at the age of 26! He quit the job as he realized the lack of advancement possibilities. He worked for years at various jobs eventually running the Bay Area branch of a large insulation company. They insulated all the homes built after World War II for the returning soldiers. Here he learned about construction and managing and leading an office full of people to positive constructive goals through this job. He quit that company in the biggest year of their operations saying it was a dying industry and he had to move on. All his peers thought he was crazy to give up security with no prospects to back him up! Eventually the wealthy owner of that company ended up working for Tom!

At the age of 33 he was reading want ads and stumbled on the recreational and retirement property field. He immediately started studying and had took the test and was a Real Estate agent within three days. Once he decided to become a Real Estate Broker he had that license within thirty days! He took the money ($11,000) he had taken all as his life to save and put it down on a piece of raw land. He worked nights and weekends selling property for others. During the day he worked on developing his first subdivision, he eventually developed 65 subdivisions and built over 750 homes! In his career he sold over 15,000 properties all of which he and Peggy owned. They never took a listing ever in all those years. We believe no other single individual has sold as much self owned property in the history of the State Of California.

His life was such that we need to list some of his bigger accomplishments being a Real Estate Broker and Developer for well over 50 years! He always said he could learn any business within 3 days! Here goes...

He developed numerous subdivisions starting with Grizzly Park in El Dorado County. It was in a beautiful Gold Country ghost town that was actually considered for the honor of being California's state capitol. This first subdivision eventually grew to 1250 lots! He built 100's of homes there. He built a beautiful lodge there, The Grizzly Park Lodge was built to facilitate the sales and growth of that community. He built all the roads, water and utilities there learning as he went.

The El Dorado County Water District refused service in the beginning as they felt his subdivision was too remote and would not amount to much. Instead of stopping him, he built The Grizzly Park Water Company, which had one of the highest per capita water supply of any water district in the State of California. When this same district came to him years later trying to buy this company for its abundant water his response was to donate the company, a ( 4 million dollar entity!) to the community it served! After years of aggressively acquiring water rights he just gave it away. "I never considered myself in the water business I just fulfilling a need at the time." His original intent was to build a little town and then retire there. As it turned out he loved the business and never stopped!

He built Mt. Retreat Timeshare Estates, this was one of the first purpose built timeshares (not a conversion) in the history of the state. He helped craft the laws regarding these and throughout his career he testified before the State Assembly regarding such matters. It is a lovely facility in the town of Arnold by Big Trees State Park.

He helped revitalize Brooktrails Vacation Village Subdivision in Willits, California saving it from bankruptcy. It eventually tripled the number of houses (over 1500) and became a major source of housing for Mendocino County. This would never have happened without him. He still has an operating office there. The sister subdivision, Shelter Cove built by the same developer who abandoned these projects, was also revitalized by him and is now booming! The Real Estate office he built in Shelter Cove is still there and being operated by others. He had 8 stand alone sales and meeting centers in various projects over the years. We stopped counting at eight, there was probably many more!

He built his own office park in San Ramon, California, one of the pioneers of the town you see today. He subdivided 7 seven parcels there including one that eventually housed the first hospital in the San Ramon Valley. It was built by John Muir Hospital. He built the first day care center (Teddy Bears) built in an office park in San Ramon Valley. Eventually working through his grandson, Chris, they made one of the first office condo projects in the Valley. All the Doctors and Dentists who were displaced when the first hospital was torn down to make way for more housing bought there. The streets there honor his efforts by being named Porter Drive and Deerwood Drive. The Deerwood Corporation was his main holding and developing company. He had numerous companies to facilitate all of his activities. The Deerwood Office Park is to this day his corporate headquarters.

Tom and Peggy had their Real Estate machine humming and opted to take more time for themselves. They started travelling the world going to exotic ports of call and seeing wonderful things. When they got done they had been to more than 300 countries! You might say there are not that many countries in the world, but he would point out that he counted countries he had been to that no longer exist. He would wait across wartime borders for countries to evolve into something new. On his last trip he went to Iran, Iraq, Syria, Yemen, Somalia, Jordan, etc. He was finally running out of places to go!

When most men would have retired he kept on. He developed and revitalized The Lake Don Pedro subdivision and The Lake Don Pedro Golf and Country Club. He built infrastructure there including an amazing sales office. He built dozens of luxury homes there. His last years were spent in the one he built for himself and Peggy. His companies, too numerous to list, included everything from construction and sales companies to his own reconveyance company, Recon Inc. He was planning new subdivisions even in his last years.

He was always helping others. His larger charitable works ranged from the donation of everything from a water company with dam and reservoir, to a community, to giving wheel chairs to those who could not walk. He donated a fire house to his first community. He also donated a fire truck to the same community. His construction of the first childcare center in San Ramon Valley at an office park was meant to help his employees and tenants. He gave the first proprietors $50,000 to help get it off the ground! He was trying to set an example for other businesses as well. He always felt it was his job to do things like that!

Tom worked until his very last days. He always wanted to create good jobs and build things for others with the help of those he organized and trained. He mentored everyone he worked with. He gave people the skills and necessary drive and experience to accomplish great things. He took you down paths of greatness that only he could envision for you the depth and breadth of what you were capable of! Whatever path people took after they worked with him, they had the tools of success having worked with him.

Tom in his later years had many requests for details of how and why he did what he did. Out of the blue the man who never talked much about the past, unless there was a lesson to be learned, was now working on short stories about important incidents in his life that formed the man he became. He shared these stories with family and friends until it reached the point where we all begged him for more of the complete picture of his formative years. He then began writing the wonderful book "I Remember" where he chronicles what a simple and poor but loving childhood he came from. With no one to show him the way he evolved in life and taught himself business practices, ideals and the how to use these for practical applications that he used all his life. He invented his world and shared that world with all he met.

He believed in self reliance and self determination. He taught this to others. Those of us who knew and worked with him still have him with us every day advising, mentoring and cajoling us all to greater heights. He would teach you the nuts and bolts of everything you need to know to do business in his field, himself being self taught! He will always be forever in our hearts and minds helping us all for the rest of our lives. His dear wife Peggy Ann who was with him every step of the way. Everything they did was together. She will carry on his legacy as she still runs the company. He adored her and as he always said he could have not done a thing without Peggy Ann. She was his main caregiver for the last years of his life. She is a saint!

This was only meant to lightly touch on the accomplishments this man did in his lifetime. It would be impossible to list them all. He will be missed by all he met but never forgotten. If you wish to pay your respects he will be at the Lakewood Cemetery in Hughson, California on Friday, June 22 at 10:00 AM with interment at approximately 11:00 AM and Celebration of Life afterwards. Thank you one and all for all your kind thoughts and prayers.