William A. Porter (1928-2015) was an American businessperson who, along with Bernard A. Newcomb founded the first electronic trading platform, E-Trade. After the success of E-Trade, Porter also co-founded International Securities Exchange with Marty Averbuch and became the first chairman of ISE on his 70th birthday in 1998. Porter was the former chief executive officer, board member, and chairman emeritus of E-Trade. In 2000, CNN called Porter the "forefather of online trading". Later in his life he donated money to businesses and nonprofits benefiting organic farming, recreation and community building on Kauai's North Shore. Background Porter was born to William Asbury Porter Sr.(1899-1965) and Dorothy Louise Bullock Porter (1905-1980). He was raised in Boulder, Colorado, and spent his childhood summers as a cowboy on a Colorado ranch. Porter quit high school to join the Navy during WWII and was expelled from the Navy when they learned he was only sixteen. Porter later put himself through college, finishing undergraduate work in three years and working nights as a crew dispatcher on the Denver and Rio Grande Railroad. According to a 2000 CNN interview, Porter attributes his self-confidence to his work as a young cowboy: As a student at Adams State College, Porter and other students would take turns visiting and reading aloud to the aged and infirmed former governor of Colorado, Billy Adams. Education Porter received a B.A. from Adams State College, an M.S. in Physics from Kansas State University, and a Master's degree in Management (M.B.A.) from the Sloan Fellows program at the MIT Sloan School of Management. Career First Company Porter started Commercial Electronics Inc. in 1968 and developed the first commercial low-light night vision for electron microscopes and the first color low-light (night vision) broadcast television camera, a technology that's used today in all broadcast cameras. Porter sold Commercial Electronics to Warner Communications after the cancellation of a large order during the 1974 recession. Patents Porter holds 14 patents, having developed a number of electronic devices and processes—including for the aforementioned "first" shoulder-mounted-backpack broadcast color TV camera, the first infrared horizon sensor for satellite stabilization (prior to Sputnik), and several other breakthroughs still in use today in a variety of fields—including, according to the 2000 CNN interview, devices used by the US military to this day. The Search Under the project name The Search, Porter developed the first electronic diesel-electric locomotive "checkout system," whereby a testing device could