Roy F. Potter
About Optica
In Memoriam: Roy F. Potter, 1919-2019
03 December 2019
Roy F. Potter, OSA Fellow and OSA Emeritus Member, passed away in December 2019 at the age of 100. Potter had an extensive career including positions at the Bureau of Standards, the Naval Ordnance Laboratory, NATO, and SPIE, the international society for optics and photonics. His research interests were solid state physics and mass spectrometry.
Following his service in the US Army (1942-1945), Potter attended the University of Washington, where he studied physics. He graduated in 1949 and moved to Washington, DC, to work at the Bureau of Standards as a physicist. Potter transferred to the Naval Ordnance Laboratory, where he would serve as Division Chief from 1964-1970. He pursued a PhD at the University of Rhode Island (1972). Potter would go onto become Head of the Electronics Materials Sciences Division at NELC in San Diego, CA. After a reorganization of his division, Potter decided to make a career change and became a scientific consultant for NATO and then SPIE. Potter assisted SPIE with organizing scientific content and recruiting speakers for its meetings. He traveled a great deal for his position, getting the opportunity to attend meetings worldwide. In 2005, Potter retired from SPIE.
Potter was an OSA Fellow (1969), held several patents, and published throughout his career. He married in college sweetheart Helen Muir in 1943 and they had two sons, Matt and Andy. Helen passed away in 1981 and Potter remarried in 1983. When he was not working, Potter enjoyed an active lifestyle as a traveler, runner, walker, hiker and boater. He is survived by his wife, Inge, his sons, daughters-in law, and grandchildren.
Potter will be remembered as a devoted husband, father and scientist. OSA and the scientific community mourn the loss of Roy F. Potter.
