William Everett Potter (17 July 1905 – 5 December 1988) was an American engineer and military officer who served as Governor of the Panama Canal Zone from 1956 to 1960. He was also involved in the logistics of the 1964 New York World's Fair and the construction of Walt Disney World.
A 1928 graduate of the United States Military Academy at West Point and a 1933 graduate of Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Potter served in Nicaragua, where he helped survey a route for the Nicaraguan Canal. As an assistant to the Chief Engineer of the Pittsburgh Engineer District, he was in charge of the construction of the Tygart Dam in West Virginia and the Emsworth Locks and Dam in Pennsylvania.
During World War II, Potter served in the G-3 section of the European Theater of Operations, United States Army (ETOUSA) as the executive officer of the Psychological Warfare Division, which he helped to establish. In February 1944 he became the chief of the Planning and Operations Branch of the G-4 section. In this role he was responsible for aspects of the planning of American logistics in the Normandy campaign. He played an important part in the creation of the Red Ball Express.
After the war he commanded the Missouri River and Alaska Districts and the Missouri River Division. Projects he oversaw included the Garrison Dam, Gavins Point Dam, Tuttle Creek Lake and the Big Bend Dam. He retired from the Army in 1960 with the rank of major general and joined Walt Disney Corporation in 1964. He became a Disney Legend in 1997, and one of the three ferries that transport guests across the Seven Seas Lagoon was re-christened General Joe Potter in his honor.
Early life
William Everett Potter was born on 17 July 1905 in Oshkosh, Wisconsin, the son of William Bradford Potter and his wife Arlie Bell Johnson. He had two brothers. His father worked at various jobs, and the family moved to Beloit, Wisconsin, and then to Toledo, Ohio, where Potter attended Scott High School. He graduated from high school in 1922, and entered the University of Toledo.
Potter entered the United States Military Academy at West Point on 2 July 1923. While there he acquired the nickname "Joe", as Joe Potter was the name of the barracks' janitor. In his senior year he was a cadet captain in charge of a company of plebes. He was suspended for a year in September 1926 for hazing them by making them run up and down three flights of stairs. He returned to West Point in 1927 with the rank of cadet private. He graduated on 9 June 1928, ranked 26th in his class, and was commissioned as a second lieutenant in the United States Army Corps of Engineers. He was given permission to wear the 1927 class ring.
Following the usual post-graduation furlough, Potter's first posting was to Fort DuPont, Delaware, as a company officer with the 1st Engineer Regiment from 9 September 1928 to 10 October 1929. He then went to Nicaragua, where he served under First Lieutenant Leslie R. Groves Jr., surveying a route for the Nicaraguan Canal. It was customary for young engineer officers to complete their professional education at a civilian university. He graduated from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology on 6 June 1933 with a Bachelor of Science degree in civil engineering.
On 20 July 1933 Potter became assistant to the Chief Engineer of the Pittsburgh Engineer District, where he was promoted to first lieutenant on 1 January 1934. He was in charge of the construction of the Tygart Dam in West Virginia and then of the Emsworth Locks and Dam in Pennsylvania. While he was in Grafton, West Virginia, he courted Ruth Turner. They married on 26 July 1936, and had two daughters, Jo Ann and Susan Ruth. Susan later married the son of Potter's 1927 classmate Herman Walter Schull Jr. Potter was a student officer in the advanced officers' course at the Engineer School at Fort Belvoir, Virginia, from 1 September 1936 to 27 August 1937, but this was interrupted by flood relief duty during the Ohio River flood of 1937. He was then assigned to Reserve Officer Training Corps (ROTC) duty at Ohio State University, where he was promoted to captain on 9 June 1938.