Divide County Journal
Crosby, North Dakota
Wednesday, February 12, 1992   Page 1

After 60 years it's now 'Doctor' Helen Porth

By Darlene Hingst

Dr. Helen Porth.

After waiting and studying for 60 years, Helen Porth has earned her title.

She got her high school diploma from Ambrose High School in 1932 and her doctor of philosophy degree from New York University in 1991. Porth completed the course work in October and will get her diploma in March.

Her doctorate is in the field of English and education and she's already making plans to use it. In her capacity as a staff member of the University of North Dakota Extension Department, she wants to teach some graduate courses in English and literature to teachers.

The morning of Oct. 22 is a day she will never forget. For two hours she faced the questions of the deans and professors at NYU. Just before noon she was asked to leave the room so they could vote on her final oral examination.

When she returned, they toasted her with champagne and called her “Doctor.” Then they took her to an Italian restaurant for lunch -spaghetti and red wine. One professor asked, “You do drink, don't you?”

Porth lied, quickly answering “yes.” She smiles now as she explains, “It was not the time nor the place to take a stand for temperance.”

Roger L. Cayer, who was her professor and the chairman of her sponsoring committee, included a special tribute in his Christmas greeting.

“I am so very pleased at the success of your final oral examination. You were absolutely perfect in your overall deportment and in your responses to the examiners' questions. We were all impressed, and I, as your chairman, was very, very proud.”

After earning her master's degree at the University of Minnesota in 1947, Porth attended college at both Los Angeles and Berkeley and taught at Richmond, Calif.

She started working on her doctorate at NYU, “probably more than 30 years ago. It took forever. It's been my aim since I graduated from high school,” she says.

Her 216-page doctoral dissertation is entitled, “An Examination of Indian and Pioneer Oral Narratives to Determine How They Parallel Or Diverge from the Written History of Western North Dakota.”

In it she traces the history of western North Dakota Indians back to 1300 when ancestors of the Mandan Indians first established villages along the Missouri River.

In settling western North Dakota, pioneers often reverted to primitive ways to adapt. Pioneer and Indian narratives were gathered through personal interviews, local history books, and magazines. Some of the narratives contradict each other in detail, and Porth’s thesis deals with these diverse histories.

Porth's family always made sure that education was a focus their home.

We lived such a long way from a rural school when I was a child, but we were always there on time, sick or well. I was dedicated to learning. It was a big effort. Father had to hitch up teams to take kids to school.”

After graduating from high school Porth earned a two-year teaching certificate at Minot State Teacher's College. She was teaching at a rural school in Grant District in Divide County by the time she was 18.

She went to school summers, completed her junior year by correspondence from the University of North Dakota and earned a degree in English and education there in 1941.

After graduation she came to Crosby to teach sixth grade, and after one year was moved into the high school, where she taught speech, drama, English, and journalism.

She was head librarian and taught world literature at Eastern Montana College of Education at Billings. Then she came home to care for her mother, who was ill, Porth says.

Fourteen of her teaching years were in Divide County schools, including 7 in Crosby. For 12 years she taught English courses at Fortuna Air Force Base. She taught 11 years at Minot High School.

Porth lives four miles west and one mile south of the Ambrose junction on her mother's homestead.

“It's not just a house. It's my home. It's been home to me my whole life.”

Porth says her one regret is that her mother and brother didn't live to see her earn her doctorate, because they were both so interested in it. Her mother, Louise, died in 1961. Her brother, Vernon, died in 1986. Her father died 58 years ago.

Porth says her second home is the Divide County Library. She visits at least once a week and reads every newspaper in the library. She reads there so she doesn't have to dispose of the newspapers on her farm, she explains.

“They miss me at the library if I don't come every week.”