Originally published on the CGS blog on June 3, 2008.
Our good friend and founding member, Neal Potter passed away on May 27th at the age of 93. Neal was at the original meeting of CGS’s ancestoral organization, United World Federalist, held in Ashville NC in 1947. He was one of many who struggled through an intense snow storm to be there because they believed, after the violence of WWII, that the world needed a better means of governing itself. For a short time he served as the World Federalist Association’s (WFA) executive director. He has played a leadership role in WFA, the Campaign for UN Reform, and every other iteration of our organization since its beginning. The Washington Post published an editorial and an obituary honoring him. The obituary below was written by his family. There will be a memorial service in his honor on June 10th at the Chevy Chase United Methodist Church, at 1:00pm on Tuesday, 10 June 2008. The family suggests memorial contributions be made to GlobalSolutions.org of Washington, DC, or the Chevy Chase United Methodist Church. If you have personal stories about Neal that you would like to share, please send them to me. He will be missed.
Neal Potter, age 93, died May 27 with his family at his side. He dedicated his life to public service, both at the Montgomery County level serving from 1970 to 1994 as Council member and County Executive and on the international level, helping to found and implement work by the United World Federalists, an organization to support world peace, now called GlobalSolutions.org. Neal also belonged to, and supported, dozens of other organizations, all dedicated to serving mankind.
Neal had an extraordinary record of service, unprecedented in Montgomery County. He was proclaimed Councilmember Emeritus by the Montgomery County Council in 1998, being called A man of his times, a man for all times. He provided outstanding leadership on taxation policy, land use planning and transportation, fiscal conservatism, tax legislation, and assessment inequities.
A long-time advocate for peace and human rights, he led student strikes against war and fascism at the Johns Hopkins University and the University of Minnesota in 1935-37. He was a life member of NAACP, and founding member of the United World Federalist Association, the United Nations Association, the Anti-Defamation League of Bnai Brith, and the Americans for Democratic Action, in addition to other, shorter-term memberships in civic, human rights, and environmental organizations.
Born on March 22, 1915, in Arlington, VA, he was raised on a dairy farm near Cabin John, MD. A graduate of the Bethesda-Chevy Chase High School, Potter later attended the Johns Hopkins University and the University of Minnesota, with masters and doctoral majors in public finance and international economics.
He was an economist with the Office of Price Administration in 1941-46, then went on to teach economics at Carnegie Tech from 1946-47, and after that at Washington State College 1947-51. He then served as the Western Field Director for the United World Federalists, working toward world peace. Having to move back East so that his second daughter, who had contracted leukemia, could have the best care at the NIH, he was then employed by Resources for the Future, co-producing a book about the feasibility of gleaning resources from the Antartic.
Potter loved to deal with tough issues, on many fronts, and therefore was active in a wide variety of civic associations. In 1960, he was the principal organizer of the Citizens Committee for Fair Taxation; President of the Montgomery County Citizens Planning Association 1965-67, and then editor 1968-69; co-chairman of the Metropolitan Washington Coalition for Clean Air; a board member of the Capital Area United Nations Association; president of the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments and on several committees for both the National Association of Counties and the Maryland Association of Counties; board member of the Streit Council for a Union of Democracies. His various group memberships include the Americans for Democratic Action, the Audubon Society, the Chevy Chase United Methodist Church, Common Cause, NAACP, SANE/FREEZE, and The United Nations Association.
Honors presented to Potter since he has been in public office include the Governor’s Citation, the Council of Government’s Metropolitan Public Service Award, and the Sentinel Newspaper’s Citizen of the Year. He was also recipient of the National Association of Counties’ Distinguished Service Award, the Audubon Naturalist Society’s Legislator of the Year Award, the Montgomery County Civic Federation’s Citation for Distinguished Public Service, the James K. Mathews Distinguished Service Award, the Harold Seidman Award for Public Service, and many others.
He is survived by his wife of 68 years, Marion; one daughter, JoAnn, and one grandson; his brother and his family, Lloyd Potter of Potomac, MD.
Memorial services will be held at the Chevy Chase United Methodist Church, at 1:00pm on Tuesday, 10 June 2008.
The family suggests memorial contributions be made to GlobalSolutions.org of Washington, DC, or the Chevy Chase United Methodist Church.
