James T. Porter, dean of liberal arts (now Arts and Sciences) from 1925 until his death in 1931, joined the UT faculty in 1908 as a professor of physics. A native Virginian, he received the AB and AM degrees from Randolph Macon College and the PhD in physics in 1905. He was chair of the Physics Department and was named assistant dean of liberal arts in 1919, being named dean when James D. Hoskins assumed the post of dean of the university in 1925. He was a member of Phi Beta Kappa and Phi Kappa Phi.