William Stuart Porter is an Electrical Designer. He was employed byEversource Energy Substation Design andMillstone Nuclear Power Plant in Connecticut from 1980 to 2022.

Bill was born in Wesson Woman's Hospital inSpringfield, Massachusetts on January 19, 1963 to William Alfred Porter Jr. (August 4, 1914 - January 22, 1968) and Amy Gertrude Morse (March 6, 1918 - November 29, 1988). He grew up in Agawam Massachusetts with his Sisters Beverly Ann (October 30, 1952) and Shirley Lois Porter (November 3, 1952). His father died in January 1968 and as his sisters graduated from Agawam high school in 1968 and 1970, respectively, and left home. He was raised from then on by his mother, ostensibly as an "only child." He graduated from Agawam High School in 1980, working before and after school at the localDunkin Donuts franchise. He began working his first job as a draftsman the day after his graduation at Professional Design Co in Agawam.

Bill's uncle, Charles Morse was a retiredNortheast Utilities power plant operator at the West Springfield station. Charlie's next door neighbor, Charles "Buzz" Bailey, was the supervisor of the Civil Engineering group also at Northeast Utilities. Through Charlie and Buzz, Bill put his application to the Substation Electrical Design group inBerlin, Connecticut who were looking for drafters. Bill was accepted at a pay rate of $180 a week to start. Still living at home, he commuted by vanpool to the Berlin office every day.

Soon after starting work, it was determined that the offices would be moving to the formerInternational Silver Company headquarters inMeriden, Connecticut. After 2 years of driving the vanpool fromWest Springfield Generating Station to the South Broad Street office, Bill bought a condominium on Crown Street in Meriden where he could walk to work. He was first introduced toComputer Aided Drafting (CAD) that was initially begun in the department with the Bruning EZDraft II system. He learnedDOS on theDECRainbow computers and, with the help of a co-worker, began dabbling inBASIC programming.

In 1992, a new office building was built in the NU Berlin Campus and the workforce was returned there. Bill rose through the ranks of Drafters and, because he was pursuing an Associates Degree at night, he was promoted to a Designer position, responsible for the physical design of electrical substations and creation of wiring diagrams from schematic diagrams.

In 1993, the Substation Design and Engineering groups had a workforce reduction. Local management arranged to offer jobs in the company to those affected. Bill was selected to work at theMillstone Nuclear Power Plant Unit 3 Electrical Engineering Department inWaterford, Connecticut. While at Millstone, he became familiar with theBentleyMicroStation drafting program.

Tiring of the greater than one hour commute for 7 years, the ponderous nature of the work, and the impending sale of the plant toDominion Energy, Bill applied for, and accepted, a position at the Connecticut Valley Electric Exchange in 2000, working as a database technician upkeeping the electric grid model used to anticipate changes in the electric transmission system.

In 2002, positions opened up back in the Substation Design group and Bill returned to the department he had originally begun in. Bill worked with theAutoCAD drafting program and was a driving force for drawing control and drafting automation. He lead a team of 5 people who processed all the uncontrolled drawing files to make one master file per drawing and categorize them for inclusion into a drawing control catalog designed by the internal IT department. This catalog information was later integrated into a commercial drawing control system with more features than the original homegrown catalog and was ultimately implemented across all of the other Engineering Departments in Eversource.

Bill was also instrumental in the use of automation in the drafting process. Bill worked with a contract programmer to develop tools to automate drawing setup, titleblock conversions and other repetitive functions that saved time and energy.

Bill retired from the Eversouce in September, 2022 with 42 years of service.

Bill went back to work in April 2023, this time for TRC, an Engineering contract firm, doing work primarily on Eversource projects.

Bill met Theresa Marie LaBarre (June 28, 1963) between his junior and senior years of high school during an Extra Sensory Perception summer class. They began dating and when Bill decided to move to Meriden, he proposed. They were married in the Agawam Baptist Church, December 4, 1982.

Theresa began going to college while Bill continued working. She graduated fromMiddlesex Community College inMiddletown, Connecticut with her associates Degree,Albertus Magnus College inNew Haven, Connecticut in 1988 andWright State University School of Professional Psychology in 1993. She worked at theFederal Correctional Institution, Danbury, Connecticut andConnecticut Valley Hospital in Middletown. She retired in June, 2022.

Bill got his Scuba Diving certificate in 1988 and his Private Pilots license in 2000.