Driver / Adviser - Bill

 

 

For Bill Potter, Sr., involvement with auto repair began soon after his four sons started tinkering with cars in the family garage: One day, they decided to spray paint a car, and the fumes nearly asphyxiated him in his room above the garage!  These days, Bill voluntarily hangs around the shop owned by sons Steve and Larry; he provides rides for customers, advises his sons, and generally helps conversation along.  Ask him about his favorite car (among those he’s owned, that is), and his eyes light up: around 1953, he traded his two-door black hydromatic Pontiac for a cream-colored Pontiac Catalina – “a dreamboat,” he calls it.  Sadly, it wasn’t long before his dreamboat sunk: the driver’s seat wouldn’t stay up, the front bumper fell off, and he was fed up.  The Catalina landed in the junk yard, and Bill’s been a Buick man ever since.  Experience taught him well, though: When asked what his dream vehicle is now, Bill simply says, “Anything plain, functional, solid, and dependable – not flashy or fancy.”  

When he’s not at the shop, Bill’s a philatelist.  He’s been collecting stamps since he was seven or eight, when he received some collectible postage from his grandfather.  Although his collection includes English commemorative stamps from the coronation of George VI as well as some distinctive stamps from Persia, he’s especially proud of two in particular: one five- and one ten-cent stamp – the first published by the U.S. Postal Service.  In fact, Bill loves his stamps so much, if he won the lottery, he says he’d make an exorbitant investment in stamps (right after clearing any debt for himself and his family).  That’s dedication, folks!  Bill’s other interests include tropical fish and HO-scale model railroad trains.

Educated at The Ohio State University and University of Dayton, Bill taught mathematics at Johnsville-New Lebanon, Oakwood, Vandalia Butler, and the University of Dayton (but not all at the same time!). He also served our country with the Army’s Second Chemical Mortar Battalion in World War II and the Korean War. 

Bill’s favorite food?  Let’s just say dessert.  He can wax philosophic about a graham cracker cake his mother used to make, as well as a yellow cake with brown sugar icing; egg custard and fudge earn places of honor, too.  His favorite movies include North and South, Random Harvest, The Illusionist, and Jane Eyre; and, he recalls listening to Little Orphan Annie on the radio, back in the days before moving pictures.  Bill’s dream vacation destinations include Papua New Guinea, Hawaii, Colorado’s Mesa Verde National Park (the abandoned cliff dwellings of the Anasazi culture), Brazil’s Iguazu Falls, and Ayers Rock in Australia.  It’s not as if Bill’s a homebody, though: he’s already enjoyed visiting many foreign lands.  On mission travels with Washington Hills Baptist Church, he’s seen Haiti, Peru, Brazil, Papua New Guinea, Portugal, and Odessa in the Ukraine, and his “other” world travels have taken him to Israel, Greece, Egypt, Australia, Japan, and Korea.  Whew!  No wonder Bill enjoys conversation: he’s got a lot to tell.