Editorial: A Tribute To Thomas 'Cole' Porter

By Gary Nager

Anyone who has been reading this publication for any period of time already knows that (like most people) I have a really hard time when anyone close to me passes away, no matter what age they may have been.

So, it’s especially hard for me to hear that a beautiful, sweet, hard-working giant of a young man was taken from his beautiful family — a family I have known for more than a dozen years — at the way-too-young age of 20.

Like so many New Tampa and Wesley Chapel residents, I was devastated to hear that Thomas “Cole” Porter was killed May 24 in an accident on his motorcycle following working with his father Scott on a construction job in State College, PA. 

Cole, the middle of Scott and his wife Kelly’s three sons in age, was the tallest, burliest and possibly sweetest of the three boys and his passing — he was wearing a helmet, but suffered massive injuries to his chest cavity in the accident — set off shockwaves throughout both New Tampa (where Cole and his brothers Cyler, 23, and Connor, 15, were raised) and here in Wesley Chapel, since the family moved to Meadow Pointe several years ago. 

Literally hundreds of people attended the beautiful, albeit heart-wrenching service at Pastor Brad White’s Lifepoint Community Church on Bruce B. Downs (BBD) Blvd., in front of Hunter’s Green, for this selfless young man who was described by a friend during the service as “carefree, but never careless.” 

I coached Cyler Porter, one of my younger son Jake’s best friends, for a season of AAU baseball, and both he and Cole were not only outstanding baseball players, but also motocross champions at very young ages and rabid outdoorsmen who loved to hunt, fish and ride motorcycles with their dad and friends.

Cyler, who was a great baseball pitcher, has always been more outgoing and eloquent than most “kids” his age, but I told him that the speech he gave about Cole — who was an outstanding catcher and intimidating presence in the batter’s box who boomed home runs “that other kids just couldn’t hit” — was like him, “pitching a perfect game to his wonderful brother.” Cyler also noted that Cole had “more of a full beard than most of the parents” at his baseball games by age 13 and that parents of opposing teams often asked to “see his birth certificate and/or his driver’s license, even when he was only 11 or 12 years old.”

He said that Cole “smiled bigger, hugged better and loved better” than anyone else he ever met and that he knew Cole was looking down from heaven at everyone in attendance and wishing that they could just be happy for and celebrating with him that he was at peace, instead of sad because he passed away. 

Rest in Peace, Cole. You’re sorely missed!