Myrom Lowe 'Hap' Potter

Tuesday, October 12, 2004

Feb. 4, 1923-Oct. 2, 2004

Myrom Lowe "Hap" Potter died Saturday, Oct. 2, 2004, at the age of 81. He was born in Montgomery, Pa., on Feb. 4, 1923, to Effie and Dr. Charles Potter, both educators. He graduated from Jersey Shore, Pa., High School in 1940 and in December 1942 he joined the Army Air Corps while a junior at Bucknell University.

While at Bucknell he was a member of the Lambda Chi Alpha fraternity and president of the campus chapter of the American Society of Engineers.

He served six years in the Army Air Corps and piloted B-17s through 35 missions over Europe.

During training in Lincoln before he went overseas, he met Catherine Trenchard of Cambridge at the University of Nebraska at Lincoln. They were married in 1945.

Later, he served three years as the Division Ordnance Officer of the 34th Infantry Division of the Iowa-Nebraska National Guard.

He received his bachelor of science and master of science degrees from Kearney State College and his doctorate in education from the University of Nebraska at Lincoln.

From 1952 through 1968, Potter farmed the Trenchard family farm west of Cambridge. During that time, he taught English at Bartley High School for one year, followed by fifteen years teaching math and science at Cambridge High School. He ended those years with service as superintendent of Wilsonville and Cambridge Public Schools.

Following completion of his doctorate in 1973, he served on the faculties of Texas A&I University of Kingsville, Texas and Doane College in Crete. He then assumed the presidency of McCook Junior College. He was called back to his first love, the classroom, and became a charter member of Corpus Christi State University, now Texas A&M University at Corpus Christi, where he taught graduate courses for nine years.

He attended summer institutes at the Westminister Foundation in London, England and Oxford University and became certified by AAMFT to serve as the only non-ordained member of the Corpus Christi Pastoral Counseling Center.

He served education as a member of numerous committees and advisory boards for CCSU, the Corpus Christi Independent School District and for Region II Education Service Center. He was charter president of Coastal Bend Area Chapter of Phi Delta Kappa. He also served several years on the Board of Higher Education and Campus Ministries of the Methodist Church Southwest Texas Conference and the administrative board of the United Methodist Church. He was a fifty-year member of the Masonic Lodge, Shrine Tehama Temple and the American Legion.

Potter was preceded in death by his beloved Catherine, wife of 53 years; three daughters, Carol (Mrs. Robert) Duis of New Richmond, Wis., and their daughters, Jennifer and Susan, Mary (Mrs. William) Schwaner of Eagle and their children, Ryan and Melissa, and Catherine Haggard Bartoli of Austin, Texas and her daughter, Genevieve Haggard; and his devoted former wife, Phyllis Fichtner-Potter of Cambridge.

Memorials may be made to the First Congregational Church of Cambridge or the Annual Fund for Texas A&M University of Corpus Christi.

Inurnment was at Fairview Cemetery in Cambridge.