Alice Porter’s 100th Birthday

Born Mable Alice Porter on Aug. 1, 1926, she was the oldest of four daughters and spent her formative years growing up on a 250-acre farm near Corbetton, Ont. From an early age, Porter knew that she wanted to become a nurse. 

She was officially accepted into the nursing program at Toronto General Hospital in the fall of 1945 and went on to graduate as a registered nurse and later received a Bachelor’s degree and diploma in Nursing Administration. 

Alice was sent to India through the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) to work primarily in public health nursing and nursing education with Jackman Memorial Hospital and the Jackman Memorial Nursing School in Bilaspur.  In 1970, Alice was asked by the Catholics to start a school for them in a very rural village area (Kunkuri, not far from Bilaspur).  In 1980, she transferred to the ecumenical Graduate School For Nurses where she was in charge of Public Health courses.  This school was started by former missionaries Ruth Mitchell and Anna Bender in Bilaspur Hospital and is now a degree program run by the Christian Medical Association of India.  Her students included the future head of the Salvation Army in South India and a health director working for 18 non-government organizations in Central Nepal.

In 1998, the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) in Canada awarded Porter the George H. Stewart award - the highest honor Disciples can offer. In 2009, Porter was presented with an Order of Ontario Certificate for her life’s work. 

She continued in community health nursing until her retirement in 1991. “Retirement” brought Miss Porter back to Shelburne, Ontario, where she helped to start the Shelburne and Area Chaplaincy Network, providing chaplaincy services to patients in long-term nursing facilities and local hospitals.