Financier private sector banker
He was born in Schenectady, New York on July 8, 1826 and died in London, England on March 24, 1897. Potter was the second son of Alonzo Potter – Professor and later Vice President of Union College and subsequently Episcopal Bishop of Pennsylvania – and Maria Nott, daughter of Doctor Eliphalet Nott, President for more than sixty years of Union College.
He was the father of Howard Cranston Potter, James Brown Potter and Grace Howard Potter. Potter entered Union College in 1842 and graduated in 1846. After his graduation he remained for a year as tutor in Latin and Greek.
Potter was active in the merchant banking houses of Brown Brothers & Company and Brown Shipley, the British wing of the Brown banking business.
At the time of his death he was still working with Brown Shipley in London. Among the positions of public trust held by Mr.
Potter were the following: He was Trustee of the Children"s Aid Society from 1857 to 1897. President of the Orthopedic Dispensary from 1878 to 1891.
President of the Association for Improving the Condition of the Poor from 1878 to 1884.
President of the Niagara Park Association. Treasurer of the United States Sanitary Commission during the War. One of the Managers of Saint Luke"s Hospital from 1869 to 1886.
Treasurer of Saint Johnland from 1871 to 1883.
First Vice-President of the State Charities Aid from 1874 to 1880. Trustee of Union College, as well as of other charitable and educational institutions.
He was also a Founding Member of both the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the American Museum of Natural History in New York City.
