Bruce D. Porter

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Bruce D. Porter (September 18, 1952 – December 28, 2016) was an American political scientist, university professor, and general authority of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church).

Early life and education
Porter was born in Albuquerque, New Mexico. He studied at Brigham Young University (BYU) and earned a doctoral degree in political science from Harvard University, focusing on Russian affairs. He spent a summer in the Soviet Union during his doctoral studies. He married Susan H. Porter, and they had four children. Porter served as a full-time missionary in the Germany Central Mission in the 1970s.

Career and church service
Porter worked for the U.S. government on the Senate Armed Services Committee and for the U.S. Board for International Broadcasting, and he worked for Northrop Corporation. He was the Bradley Senior Research Fellow at Harvard’s Olin Institute from 1990 to 1993 and later taught political science at BYU. He also served as a bishop in Virginia and held other church leadership roles, including involvement with BYU student leadership.

General authority
In 1995, Gordon B. Hinckley called Porter to the Second Quorum of the Seventy. In 2003, he was transferred to the First Quorum of the Seventy. He served in leadership roles for the church’s Europe East and Salt Lake City areas, directed the church’s Correlation Department, and helped coordinate Middle East and Africa North activities from 2008 to 2014. Porter was the president of the Europe East Area (based in Moscow) from 2014 until late 2016, when he returned to church headquarters. He died in Salt Lake City from a pulmonary infection.

Authorship and legacy
Porter wrote books and articles on politics, religion, Russian foreign policy, and international relations.