David OBrien Potter, 67, passed away peacefully at home on March 17, 2016. He was born on November 16, 1948, in Banner Elk, N.C., son of Stover Potter and Betty Jones Potter. He grew up in the care of his maternal grandparents, David and Minnie Jones, on their mountaintop farm in Roan Mountain, Tenn. There, Dave learned many of the values that guided the rest of his life: the benefit of work, the responsibility of honor, the importance of truth, trust in God, and love for the people around him.
By high school, Dave returned to his nuclear family in Hammond, Ind., and after graduating, attended both Purdue and Vincennes Universities, eventually enlisting in the Army during the Vietnam war where his intelligence and capability saw him recruited to elite units like Special Forces, Special Operations, and the Army Security Agency.
When he came home, Dave went to work as a design engineer for Motorola, where he spent more than twenty years, earning seven patents and helping to design the first microwave oven and the first automotive electronic ignition and fuel injection systems. He married JoAnne in 1978, moved into a house he built himself in Lake Villa, Ill., and their son Bryan was born in 1979. In 1991, Dave and JoAnne bought 40 acres in Richland Center, Wis., and the family moved there in 1998. Dave worked for Nicolet Instruments in Madison until 2009.
Dave did not always take himself seriously, but he always took living seriously. He believed that what we do on this earth matters, that it is our obligation to the Creator who gave us life to live it with honor and courage according to His law. As son, soldier, husband, father, and man of God, he determined to do this and never faltered.
Dave is survived by his wife, JoAnne, his sisters, Audrey Norris and Jean Potter, his son, Bryan, his stepson, Richard Stoehr (Judi), three step-granddaughters, many Southern cousins, and more friends than any of us can count.
Funeral services will be held at 11 am. Saturday, June 18, at High Point Church, 620 Buck Mountain Road, Roan Mountain, Tenn. Interment will take place in the Potter/Jones family cemetery immediately afterward, followed by a luncheon at the home of his sister, Jean. Those wanting to make financial memorials can do so either to the Veterans of Foreign Wars, http://www.vfw.org/, or Casa Hogar Juan Pablo II orphanage, Lima, Peru, www.homeajpm.org/ .