Columbus, NC - Rev. Wilmer Melvin Potter, 85, of Columbus, NC, passed away peacefully surrounded by his family at the Hospice House Carolina Foothills, Landrum, SC, on Saturday, September 7, 2013 following a brief illness.Wil was born in Loganville, New Brunswick, Canada, on December 1, 1927, the son of the late William and Janet (Irving) Potter.Rev. Potter was raised in New Brunswick, Canada; he was a graduate of Chatham High School, Class of 1944. Wil attended Gordon Conwell College, Boston, Massachusetts and transferred to Bates College in Lewiston, Maine where he met and married Carolyn Perry of Presque Isle, Maine in 1948. Rev. Potter and Carolyn had a daughter Zonnwiece and a son Irving. They traveled to California and he completed his seminary training at the Berkley Baptist Divinity School, an American Baptist Seminary.The American Baptist Home Mission Society called Wil to his first position in Pennsylvania. The next forty years Rev. Potter spent in the pastoral ministry leading churches in the following cities, Coraopolis, PA Erie, PA, Westlake, OH, Wyoming, a suburb of Cincinnati, OH, Springfield, MA, Warwick, RI, Seekonk, MA and Melvin Village, NH.On May 5, 1984, Rev. Potter married Rev. Mary Alice (Thornburg) Potter. They both retired on December 31, 1990; Wil from Melvin Village Community Church and Mary from New Hampton Community Church. Both churches were affiliated with the American Baptist Church, USA.During Rev. Potter's retirement he volunteered with Habitat for Humanity and was crew chief for the Wednesday volunteers for sixteen years where he helped build fifty homes. He was part of the men's group at Tryon Presbyterian Church and also helped lead a church school class for the choir for seventeen years. During the 1990's he often helped in pulpit supply. During these years he became quite proficient in woodworking using the scroll saw and intarsia (a wood mosaic). Throughout his life he was able to fix just about anything.Wil was also very athletic; in the 1940's he was on the semi-pro hockey team in St. John's, New Brunswick, named the Beavers. Throughout his life he played baseball and took up biking in the 1990's and biked from Providence, RI to New Brunswick, Canada, which was a thousand miles round trip.He will be greatly missed by his loving family, his wife Mary of Columbus, NC, a sister, Aletha Good of Nova Scotia, a daughter, Zonnwiece Simard, of Bradenton, FL, a son and daughter-in-law, Irving and his wife Deborah L. Potter of Plant City, FL; his three beloved grandchildren, Sarah S. Moxley and her husband Jason of Sarasota, FL, William B. Nacewicz and his wife Miranda of Westfield, MA, Adam Simard, of Sarasota, FL; his two precious great grandchildren, Mars and Mia Moxley, of Sarasota, FL.Memorials may be given to the Tryon Presbyterian Church, Habitat for Humanity, The American Heart Association, The American Cancer Society, The American Diabetes Association, or The Hospice House of the Carolina Foothills.A memorial service will be held in the sanctuary of Tryon Presbyterian Church, 430 Harmon Field Road, on Wednesday, September 11, 2013 at 11:00 am.
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