| Dr. J.G. Potter |
Dr. Potter was the director of AYI and also taught Physics. He was an energetic little guy, who was
brilliant with his physics, but was an absent minded professor. The reason the absent minded aspect was
listed comes from two stories that circulated about Dr. Potter.
Once Dr. Potter was walking across the street near the Memorial Student building and ran into a student
on a bike with both falling down. As Dr. Potter picked himself up, he reached to help the fallen student he
apologized and asked the student, "Which way was I going? If I was coming from that way (and he pointed) I
had already been to my Physics class and I was going to lunch, but if I was if I was coming from that way
(and he pointed) I was heading to my class. Which way was I going?"
The other story was about Dr. Potter's trip to a convention in some out of state location. Dr. Potter drove
his own car to the convention and afterward proceeded to fly home, forgetting that he had driven. He had to
hire a student to return to get his car and drive it home. The validity of these stories can not be verified, but
an incident that happened during one of his Physics demos in our class at least illustrates some of his
clumsiness. He was using a bike wheel to demonstrate centripetal force. The idea was to get the wheel
spinning while holding the wheel by the pedals. As it spun around, while sitting on a stool, turn the wheel
thus causing the stool and Dr. Potter to turn. I still to this day remember well the wheel caught Dr. Potter's tie
and wound it up, launching itself toward Dr. Potter's throat. Of course this was the best part of Physics for
that day or maybe for any other day. Dr. Potter was really a good teacher and we all loved him. He was a
part of what made 1966-1967 such a great year.
P.S. Physics was NOT my best subject.
