ST. CLAIRSVILLE — City native Jim Porterfield received a patent for the core strengthening device and method he developed.

The 1968 St. Clairsville High School graduate was awarded a patent from the U.S. Patent Office for his device, Core Builder Pro. More information about the device can be found at corebuilderpro.org.

Porterfield also is a graduate of Ashland College, the Mayo Clinic School of Physical Therapy and Kent State University with a master’s in exercise physiology. He is co-author of four textbooks on managing spine and shoulder pain and a human cadaver dissection series.

He worked at Ashland Samaritan Hospital in 1974 and was the only licensed physical therapist in a six-county area.

He moved to Kent to work for a private practice in 1976. He relocated to Akron in 1978 to create a clinical entity that would fund a musculoskeletal research center and since has opened and operated four related businesses.

The Core Builder Pro was incorporated July 2018, formerly having been known as The Porterfield Core Strengthening Device and Method LLC. The patent was awarded by the U.S. Patent Department on April 13.