Alumnus Patrick Portway creates lasting impact

By Abigail Klare

A now-retired executive of the telecommunications industry, Patrick Portway, BA ‘63 can trace the lasting impact of his University of Cincinnati experience throughout his life, especially at a time when he needed it most.

The son of a widowed mother, Portway assumed the financial burden of his UC education from the moment he stepped onto campus in 1958. Portway worked for a dry cleaner delivery driver at the time, earning just enough money to cover the cost of school which at first, he completed in the evenings. After his first year, Portway switched to full-time student status, recognizing it would cost more but ultimately allow him to earn his degree much sooner.

Starting as a physics major, Portway completed rigorous classes in math, science, and technology. He did so while balancing a part-time job at the reservations desk of local dance hall and music venue, Castle Farm, and as member of the UC Army Reserve Officer Training Corps. “It was a lot to balance at the time, but everything I was involved in mattered to me. I found it important to find ways to support myself while maintaining a commitment to serving something bigger,” Portway says.

The military recognized Portway’s unique background of political science, math, science, and technology from his time at UC. He went on to run a computer center for the Army and trained himself in Cobalt (CAD program) and other machine languages.

Portway left his work in government to join the private sector. His career spanned time at many leading companies, including Xerox, Boeing and Satellite Business Systems (SBS), a company founded in partnership by IBM, Aetna and COMSAT. Working for American Satellite, he sold and oversaw the implementation of satellite networks to leading companies including Crocker National Bank, Wells Fargo and Bank of America.

At Bank of America, Portway presented a seminar to company executives on the opportunities of satellite networks. He explained how this new technology could be utilized to facilitate two-way video conferencing. Executives delighted in Portway’s ideas and inspired him to go beyond one-time seminar trainings. Recognizing the disruptive power of this new application of computers and telecommunications, Portway started his own company and began to travel America, spreading the word about videoconferencing.

Emerging as an expert in the new field, Portway went on to establish TeleCon, a trade show focusing on the latest innovations in videoconferencing and collaborative computing technologies and their applications in distance learning, telecommuting and telehealth. TeleCon welcomed over 20,000 annual attendees at the Anaheim Convention Center.

His once “futuristic” line of work has become the new normal around the world, especially in recent months given the COVID-19 pandemic. “I always knew this was a critical tool for our world’s technological advancement. Recent events have more than proven that is the case,” Portway says.

“I’ve seen and done a lot of things in this life,” Portway says, “and through it all, I never stopped learning. Most importantly, I never forgot that my path was put in motion by someone else’s act of generosity.”

Since his retirement in 2000, Portway has given generously to UC, funding two charitable remainder unitrusts (CRUTs). Through the CRUTs, Portway will create the Patrick Portway Scholarship Endowment Fund to help students in the College of Arts & Sciences finance their educations. 

“We go through our lives, and things happen to us that just stick; we don’t forget them. For me, that was the financial help someone provided when I was in a really difficult situation,” Portway says. “I believe that if you are going to establish some sort of legacy, it is very difficult to do it on your own, but by tying part of my legacy to UC I know that it will become a part of something bigger and that endures.”

Featured image: UC's West Campus. Photo/Michael Keating for the UC Foundation.