We were all shocked to hear of the sudden death of our friend Bill Porter on Saturday. He will be missed by everyone here.I never seemed to go out of the door here without bumping into him and he always had something positive to say. In fact, on Thursday he helped us make fill sandbags and on Friday we discussed his offer to make insect homes for us out of old logs.
What I didn't realise was that Bill was a volunteer and member of The Friends of Paxton Pits Nature Reserve a long time before I came. Ray Matthews (our Chairman) filled me in:
"Bill Porter was one of the supporters and volunteers who worked, right at the start, for the creation of PPNR. Christine (his wife) brought their two sons to join our Young Ornithologists' (YOC) group, which is where he first got involved with work parties (yes YOC WPs!). Bill continued to take part in our Sunday WPs, on and off, for much of the time since then. More recently, Bill helped out with
events".
Ray knew him for 35 years and found him to be a very friendly person, always with something
interesting, and usually new, to say about Paxton Pits. "He knew the area inside out, visiting most days. A mine of information. For much of the time, he would use the paths for jogging (quite a runner was Bill), but latterly for walking his dogs".
