West Chester resident Charles Marvin Porter — a popular community activist and former teacher and principal — has died at 86, writes Gary Miles for The Philadelphia Inquirer.

Porter worked as a teacher and principal at Sidney Smedley Elementary School in Morton and taught classes in psychology and sociology at Harcum College. He founded West Chester’s East End Neighborhood Association in the early 2000s, served on the Malvern Planning Commission, and advocated for racial diversity in the faculty at West Chester University in the 1970s as a member of the school’s board of trustees.

As a leader in the West Chester community, he served on the board of the Charles A. Melton Arts and Education Center. He directed projects that improved housing and refurbished the neighborhood, as well as funded tutoring programs and scholarships.

Porter had a variety of heart ailments throughout his life, but thanks to his faith and natural optimism, “he kept bouncing back,” said his wife, Shirley.

Read more about Charles Marvin Porter in The Philadelphia Inquirer.