Dr. James E. Potter, an engineer and mathematician, died at his Winchester home after a long battle with cancer. He was 68 years of age.
Born in Iowa City, Iowa in 1937, Jim was the son of the late Dr. J.J. Potter and Iris Matthias Potter. He grew up in Rockford, Illinois and attended Rockford public schools, graduating from West High School in 1955 where he was a Westinghouse talent search winner.
From there he attended the California Institute of Technology, graduating with honors in 1959. He received his Ph.D. in Mathematics in February of 1962 from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Early in his career Jim made a number of groundbreaking contributions to space flight. From 1965 to 1974 he was on the faculty of the Aeronautics and Astronautics Department at MIT, attaining the rank of Associate Professor with tenure. He was advisor to more than 50 graduate students, including a number of NASA astronauts. While at the MIT Instrumentations Laboratory (now Draper Labs), his work on the Apollo project led to what is familiarly called “Potter’s Square Root Method.” That development opened a new frontier in methods for determining spacecraft trajectories and was an important element of the system that guided Apollo astronauts to the moon. Later in his career, Potter mad a significant contribution to the architecture of current aircraft avionics systems. This innovation, known as “Parity Space”, forms the basis for some of the life-critical elements in flight control systems of modern aircraft, including portions of the software embedded in the avionics computers of Boeing 777 transport aircraft.
Jim left MIT in 1974 to pursue a career in private industry, working at JLM International, Northrop Corporation and Textron before returning to Draper Labs.
In 1993, he retired from Draper Labs and started his own consulting company, Potter Engineering, where he worked until his death. Although much of his work remains highly classified, several of his contributions have been openly acknowledged. Potter Engineering received official commendation from the Director of Central Intelligence, and personal praise from the Under Secretary of Defense For Acquisition for contributions vital to national defense.
Jim was an avid reader, especially of military history, and an electronics enthusiast. He was also a ham radio operator since the age of ten.
Jim leaves his devoted wife of 37 years, Barbara (Howard), and loving children Jennifer of Austin, Texas and James N. of Allston, MA.
A Funeral Service will be held in the Church of the Redeemer, 60 Forest Park Road, Woburn, MA on Friday, December 9 at 12 noon. Interment will take place in Wildwood Cemetery, Winchester.
In lieu of flowers, donations in his memory may be made to the Massachusetts General Hospital Pancreatic Cancer Research Fund, 165 Cambridge St. Suite 600, Boston, MA 02114.