It Works!

A Google Search for “wordpress featured image portrait” brought me to this site and from there I found a link to this plugin. Works as advertised!

The only issue I had was that it did not detect the face in my photo. But via the Hotspots option in the Media Library I was able to precisely define the center of the photo. No algorithm would have done exactly what I was seeking anyway. I imagine I will fine-tune the crop via a manual hotspot in most instances for optimal results. Bravo!