Arnie de la Porte
Charles A. Andre de la Porte, or Arnie de la Porte as he is known, was born and raised in the Netherlands. He is a graduate of de Kweekschool voor de Zeevaart, the oldest Nautical Academy in Europe, and a retired officer in the Royal Dutch Navy.
After his nautical career he became very active in international business first in Shell and later as Sales Director for a B. Elliot and Co., a large European machine tool company, followed by General Manager of McCulloch of Europe and In 1981, he became Vice President International of Ridge Tool and located to Elyria, Ohio. Here he Co-founded Hexon inc. where he specialized in export and turn-arounds
In 1996 Her Majesty the Queen of The Netherlands appointed Arnie as Her Honorary Consul for the State of Ohio.
Here is a partial list of Arnie’s accomplishments:
- Past Co-Chairman of the Cleveland Tall Ship Festival
- Past Grand Commodore of the Ohio Commodores
- Honorary chair of the Rotary club of Cleveland
- Honorary president of the Cleveland Rotary Club
- Past Chairman of the Cuyahoga Valley Scenic Railroad
- Past Chairman of the board of the Elyria Country Club
- Board member northern Ohio district export council (Nominated By US Secretary of Commerce)
- Founding Board member of the French American Chamber
- Founding Board member of the British American Chamber of Commerce
- Founding Board member of the Netherlands Chamber of Commerce
- Founding Board member of the Benelux Business Association
- Founding Board member of the German Roundtable
- Past president of the Cleveland World Trade Association
- Past board member of the Greater Cleveland Growth Association
- Past board member State of Ohio economic development Council
- Founding board member business advisory board Maine Maritime Academy, in Castine, ME
- Founding Board member Cleveland World Trade Association Foundation
- Founding board member North East Ohio Trade Network
- He was awarded the “Ordre National du Mérite” by the country of France
His motto was: “Trading nations seldom go to war.”
Arnie de la Porte was inducted by Lithuanian Consul Ingrida Bublys.
Click on the white arrows to watch the videos from the 2016 Induction Ceremony. Make sure your speakers are on and note that you can maximize the videos to fill the screen.
Video 1: Debbie Hanson of ClevelandPeople.Com introduced Honorary Consul of the Republic of Lithuania Ingrida Bublys to induct Arnie de la Porte into the Cleveland International Hall of Fame.
Video 2: Honorary Consul of the Republic of Lithuania Ingrida Bublys inducts Arnie de la Porte into the Cleveland International Hall of Fame.
Honorary Consul of the Netherlands Arnie de la Porte was inducted posthumously into the Cleveland International Hall of Fame. His son Peter accepted the honor and gave this acceptance speech stressing his father’s motto that ‘Trading nations seldom go to war.”