Andrey Abraham Potter

Andrey (Andy) Abraham Potter (August 5, 1882 – November 5, 1979) was a Russian-American mechanical engineer and educator,[1] and the 52nd president of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers in the year 1933–34. He is known for his work in engineering and scientific education.[2][3]

Biography

Youth and education

Potter was born in Vilnius in Russia, now capital of Lithuania, as son of Gregor Potter and Rivza Potter in 1882. As a child he was musically gifted and played ocarina.[4] After regular education in Vilna, he emigrated in 1887 at the age of fifteen to the United States, where he would become a U.S. citizen in 1906.[1]

In 1899 at the age of 17 he entered Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where he obtained his BSc in 1903.[1]

Career in education and recognition

After graduation in 1903 Potter started as turbine engineer at General Electric in Schenectady, New York. In 1905 he accepted an appointment at the Kansas State University College of Agriculture as assistant professor of Mechanical Engineering. In 1913 he was also appointed Dean of Engineering, and became director of the university's Engineering Experiment Station. In 1920 Potter moved to the Purdue University, where he served as Dean of Engineering until his retirement in 1953. Potter served as the thesis advisor of Maurice Zucrow, the first recipient of a PhD degree in engineering from Purdue. In the year 1945-46 he also served as president of Purdue University.[1] Dean Potter brought Purdue Engineering to national prominence, doubling the enrollment, overseeing the construction of three new buildings and founding three new engineering schools at Purdue University College of Engineering. In a 1977 newspaper profile on the occasion of Purdue naming a building in his honor, Potter is quoted saying:

Customers, pupils and associates are attracted to those who by word and deed demonstrate a genuine interest in others. This human interest involves kindness, courtesy, candor, fairness, respect, understanding, frankness, optimism, and much of giving self.

In the year 1924-25 Potter was president of the American Society for Engineering Education, in 1932-33 president of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers, and in 1936-38 President of the American Engineering Council. Over the years he was awarded 10 honorary doctoral degrees.[1] Among others he was awarded the Lamme Award in 1940,[5] and the Cyrus Hall McCormick Gold Medal in 1953.[6]

Selected publications
Articles, a selection
  • Remmers, H. H., Davenport, K. S., & Potter, A. A. (1946). "The best and worst teachers of engineering." Studies in Higher Education, (57), 3-17.

References
  1. Potter, A. A. (Andrey Abraham) (1882-1979), Purdue University Libraries. The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 2012. Accessed 2017-09-12
  2. Robert B. Eckles. The dean: a biography of A. A. Potter. 1974.
  3. Angie Klink (2011), Divided Paths, Common Ground. p. 109
  4. "Life of A.A. Potter: American Dream". Lafayette Journal and Courier. 24 April 1977.
  5. Engineering Education, Vol. 31. 1940. p. 1
  6. Agricultural Engineering. 1953. p. 483
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