Potter, Alfred D.

Description

Alfred Potter was born on April 10, 1926, in Chester, Pennsylvania, the son of Clara and Harry. His family moved to Rye in 1940 and lived at 11 Cowles Ave and were members of the Presbyterian Church. Alfred was a Rye High School Graduate, Class of 1944.

He served as an officer in the U.S. Navy during World War II.

Alfred entered the Navy OCS on May 2, 1944 at Yale. He attended Yale while on active duty and was discharged in June, 1946. Yale Class of 47, he was recalled to active duty in 1950 and served ten years. When mustered out he was then Lt. Cmdr. Alfred D. Potter.

Four Rye Students Pass Navy V-12 Examinations
Four Rye High School students passed the Navy V-12 examinations last week and are now awaiting assignment to colleges to commence their training. They are Alfred Potter, Robert Gray, Richard Hoilister and Irving Wood. Hoilister also passed the V-5 course for the Navy Air Corps and will enter that branch of the service. Wood passed the examination for the radio technician course.
RYE, NEW VORK FRIDAY, MARCH 31, 1944 Rye High School Graduate, class of 1944

He was recalled to active duty in 1950 and served ten years. When mustered out he was then Lt. Cmdr. Alfred D. Potter.

Al Potter, who hailed from Chester, Oft used his great wit to pester. Both friend and foe alike, Or strangers on a trike. None safe from the puns of the Jester.

Al would want to be remembered for his service – in the Boy Scouts of America (Wood Badge & Silver Beaver Award recipient), the ROTC, a veteran of WWII and Korea, and the U.S. Navy (Commander), and to the Episcopal Church;

Also, for his intellectual pursuits and achievements – at Yale (B.A. ’47, achieved in just three years, while working throughout), Old Dominion College (MBA, before it was a University), Illinois Institute of Technology (M.A ’71), and as a life member of MENSA.

Al was also proud of his career at Ford, where he worked as an industrial engineer, and the advancements he accomplished while there. Beyond his service, achievements, and employment history, Al wanted to be remembered as a person who strived to do good.

We will remember The Commander for his terrible jokes, his dual commitment to traveling and instilling in his family an insatiable wanderlust, his lifelong preaching of the Gospel of Compound Interest, and his later-life motivation to bring his family together with the creation of new traditions that served to unify his children and grandchildren.

Fortunately, his legacy extends far beyond the puzzling “Millennium Gift” to his lineage – a terrifying package approximately the weight and proportions of two of his brandy-soaked fruitcakes, with instructions to open in 2020.

Al was a genius who made art through exploring logarithms in needlepoint, vacationed on archeological digs in communist Russia, passed his time writing raunchy limericks with Isaac Asimov, and whose favorite toy as a child was a stick, because it could be anything he imagined.

Alfred Potter died on December 6, 2016, in Illinois at the age of 90.

Al’s life was remembered and honored at a memorial gathering Saturday, January 14, 2017 with full military honors.