After 20 years on Capitol Hill, retiring U.S. Rep. John Porter (R-10th) passed the bucks — 325,000 of them — to Northwestern, his alma mater.
Porter will donate about $325,000 of leftover campaign funds to NU to start a new professorship of biomedical research at the Medical School in his name.
“I can think of no better use for this campaign money than to invest it in health research that will benefit the needs of society,” Porter said in a statement.
Porter, a Wilmette resident finishing his 11th term in the House of Representatives, worked to boost federal funding for the National Institutes of Health while he was the chairman of the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education.
“It’s a great start for us in raising money for an important chair in biomedical research,” said Ronald Vanden Dorpel, vice president for university development.
NU Medical School Prof. Stephen D. Miller, director of the school’s Interdepartmental Immunobiology Center, was named to the professorship.
Vanden Dorpel praised Porter’s work “not only for Northwestern’s medical research efforts, but also for so many other institutions of higher learning in his many years in Congress.”
Porter, 65, was born in Evanston and has kept close ties to the city.
He graduated from Evanston Township High School in 1953 and received his undergraduate degree from NU in 1957.
After he graduated from the University of Michigan Law School and served six years in the U.S. Army Signal Corps, Porter began practicing law in Evanston. NU later awarded him an Honorary Doctor of Laws Degree in 1999.
Other congressional or presidential candidates have made similar contributions to their alma maters. Candidates are allowed to do just about anything with their leftover campaign funds — except take them for personal use. The funds typically are donated to charities, educational institutions or political party coffers.
When Illinois Sen. Paul Simon retired from Congress in 1996, among many gifts he gave were $100,000 to his alma mater, Dana College in Blair, Neb.; $10,000 to the Carter Center, former President Jimmy Carter’s Atlanta-based peace organization; and $2,500 to the Democratic National Committee.
In Porter’s case, Vanden Dorpel said the congressman had done “a really great thing. It shows he’s a loyal Northwestern man.”
Vanden Dorpel said the gift of campaign funds to NU was the first of its kind during his 13-year tenure as head of development.
