Saturday, January 24, 2015
Don Potter was a friend who talked about mountains, hiking and skiing with a displaced Coloradan in central NY. He was in our faculty group who skied several miles of a hilly circuit on Brookfield trails in subzero temperatures early on a Superbowl Sunday, so fans could get home for the game.
Don Potter was a senior colleague who loaned me a simple drill that I needed for my research, then helped me make the case to fund my own by declining to share in perpetuity.
Inducted as a full member into Sigma Xi, the scientific research society at CalTech, he became a Charter Member of the Hamilton College Chapter of when a small number of Hamilton faculty made the case for an upgrade from club to chapter status. Potter was instrumental in the chapter recognition of local teachers, and he continued to support the chapter into his emeritus years.
I respected Donald Potter. I admired his energy and his spirit.
