Courtesy of The Zachary Porter Foundation

More than 500 people came to Zachary Porter’s memorial service in his hometown of Lake Bluff, Illinois. 

 Maybe it was because he was such an easy person to be friends with. Because of how quick he was to volunteer hugs and piggybacks. Maybe it was because of the expansive group of friends who loved him through the two years of school he completed at Washington University. 

 His fraternity brothers came to the service. His club baseball teammates attended. His friends from all over campus attended. His parents heard story after story about their son who tutored his classmate for hours and refused payment. They heard about a student who was thinking about transferring from WashU, but who said that “Zach made me like it here.”

 “I always looked up to Zach, even though he was younger than me,” said Elizabeth Porter, one of Zach’s two older sisters. “I knew he was great, and I really did appreciate having him as my brother when he was alive. But in death, it’s hearing all these stories just over and over again…I respect him 10 times more.”

 More than 500 people came to mourn the death of the 20-year-old who, by all accounts from his family and friends, was going to be an incredible adult.

 On Sunday, May 21, 2023, Zach was visiting Alaska with friends when he got stuck in a tidal mudflat. Despite troopers and rescue teams being notified, rescue efforts were unsuccessful. He is survived by his mother, father, and two sisters, as well as countless young adults from WashU and beyond who lost a lifelong friend. 

“I was not the same person before I met Zach Porter, and I will not be the same person now that he’s gone,” junior Ben Coulter wrote in his memorial speech.

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When Zach got to WashU, it was evident to his parents that the school was an excellent fit. He could have profound conversations late at night about the meaning of life with his roommates. He could continue his lifelong love of baseball by playing on the club team. He could juggle all his different interests and hobbies. He could explore new interests, like philosophy.

 “It was so great just to see him there, with all those diverse interests,” his dad, Todd Porter, said. “WashU was the perfect place — he felt comfortable there. It was fun to see him getting exposed to new ideas, and we were happy that he was branching out and making some smart friends.”

 He was majoring in economics and data science. He talked to his parents about maybe working at the Federal Reserve writing economic policy to help with economic inequality, and to his friends about how much he would love being a high school teacher. He was excited to study at the London School of Economics over the summer. He taught chess to local elementary schoolers, despite having never played before, learning along the way. He tutored students, volunteered often, stayed on top of his studies, and still managed to find time to hone his guitar skills, polishing Blackbird through lots of practice and playing it for his friends.

 If it sounds like he was wildly busy, it’s because he was never one to waste time. 

 “He got a lot out of life in 20 years,” junior Nikhil Datta said. “He’s definitely the greatest person I’ve ever met. I look up to him a lot — I always have, and a lot of my friends always did. We were always trying to make him proud. He was always involved in the right kind of stuff, and he really made the world a better place.”

For Zach, that also meant improving the organizations that he was a part of, even if that meant butting against authority to do what he thought was right. “He had a very strong independent, anti-authoritarian streak,” his father Todd Porter said. “He didn’t believe in traditions for the sake of traditions. He was always skeptical. He liked to stand up and ask questions.” 

 At 13, Zach staged a dugout coup for his baseball team, baiting the coach into abandoning the dugout. He was a good ball player — the best on his U14 team — and late in the game, his coach said, “Okay, Zach, you’re going in.” Zach refused because the team already had a very healthy lead, insisting that the coach play the kids who hadn’t pitched all year. After heated words, his coach stormed out of the dugout, and Zach coached the team for the last four innings of the game. The team won; the coach quit; the kids who never usually got time on the mound pitched for the win, which was what was most important to him.

Five years later, his moral compass still strong as ever, he rushed a fraternity during his freshman year and then dropped it on bid night. “He was like, this is stupid — I don’t know why anyone participates in an organization that does this to its members,” his sister said. “They were like, ‘Oh, it’s tradition.’ He said, ‘That doesn’t mean we have to continue doing it.’”

 Even when he eventually found his place in another fraternity, Sigma Nu, he constantly questioned pointless rules. He was playfully admonished by his fraternity brothers for being too nice to the pledges. He liked his fraternity brothers because he felt that they were kindred spirits, his sister said, but that didn’t prevent him from voicing his opinions.

 “The main role that Zach had within Sigma Nu was holding us to a high standard,” Datta said. “Zach would always speak out if he felt that something was wrong. If he felt that we were doing things because they were traditions and not because they were true to who we are, what we believe, he’d say something about it.” 

***

Sophomore year, Zach developed a new pre-game stretching routine as pitcher for the WashU’s club baseball team, the Slayers: handstands. Captain Joseph Merkedeau would always see Zach, one of the best players on the team, with his legs swaying in the air as he tried to hold himself up. 

“I don’t really know that helped him stretch, but he was doing them for like 10 minutes — seeing how long he could hold a handstand,” Merkedeau said. 

He also nominated himself as the team’s Twitter manager, and every game, he would tweet out a Slayer of the Day poking fun at his teammates. “Skipper Joe Merkadeau is OUT following the birth of his second child. Congrats Joe! Sam Toy has been placed on the 120 day [injured list] following a base jumping incident,” Zach wrote on @WUSlayers. He even got the account verified with a blue checkmark, even though it only had 112 followers.

“He was a really funny guy — his style of comedy was really unique,” Merkedeau said. “He just liked to do these bits.” 

His humor was just one of the many things his friends loved about him. 

For some of Zach’s close friends, their first impression of him was a “sporty, stereotypical, dude,” Datta described. “But he really was not like that at all.”

 Through time, they got to know his strong values: his compassion, his clear priorities in life, and his friendship and desire for genuine connection. He made people know that he cared about them. He was thoughtfully aware of other’s feelings. He was an incredible storyteller. 

 “As I grew closer to him throughout the year, his genuine care and desire for human connection were dissimilar to anyone I’ve ever met,” Coulter wrote.

***

His family realized right away that there would be an outpouring of support from all of the people who loved Zach, and they wanted to harness that into something he would be proud of. The Zachary Porter Foundation has a mission statement to honor and celebrate Zach’s life by “subsidiz[ing] enrichment activities, including music lessons, sports, park programs, and outdoor field trips, for kids who would not otherwise have the access to the same opportunities.”

 “Basically, we want to help other kids have the type of experiences that Zach had that made him such an incredible guy,” Elizabeth Porter said.

The Foundation has received around 500 contributions already, allowing them to donate $10,000 to a program that gives grants to children to attend summer camp, which enabled up to 50 kids to have that opportunity this summer. 

Zach’s family is currently in the process of evaluating what they want to do next; the Foundation website explains that their long term goal is to “establish an outdoor space where animals of all kinds can take refuge and children can come to learn about the natural world that Zach so deeply valued.”

 Zach Porter talked about learning the piano during the fall semester. He was going to be the risk chair for Sigma Nu. He was going to learn more Beatles songs — his dad’s favorite band — to play when he got home. He was going to decorate St. Louis with more Save The Fish United stickers, a trademark joke in his friend group. He was going to go on more adventures with his best friends and probably hop a few more fences in the process. He was going to add, immeasurably, to the WashU community, to the lives of everyone lucky enough to call him a friend. 

“I’m so glad Zach was a part of my life, he was truly a gift to this world,” Coulter wrote. “So go live your best life for Zach, hug all your friends, laugh loudly, give people flowers, and go on an adventure. Tell people about your dreams, your favorite colors, your favorite books, and dance whenever the opportunity presents itself. Make sure to cherish all these moments for Zach.”

For those interested in donating to the Zachary Porter Foundation, more information can be found at zacharyporterfoundation.org and updates can be found on Instagram: @thezacharyporterfoundation.