Roy M. Potter

Roy M. Potter, age 98, of Chadwick, Illinois, died Tuesday, August 14, 2012, at the Carroll County Good Samaritan Society, Mt. Carroll, Illinois. A funeral service will be held at 2:00 p.m. on Friday, August 17, 2012, at the Law – Jones Funeral Home in Chadwick. Burial will follow in the Chadwick Cemetery. Visitation will be held from 12:00 to 2:00 p.m. prior to the funeral at Law – Jones Funeral Home, Chadwick.
Roy was born Mar 1, 1914 in Fargo, North Dakota, grew up in Fargo and attended school there. He moved to Illinois in 1937 where he worked as a machinist and toolmaker at International Harvester in Moline, Illinois, producing tooling for heavy farm equipment and then materials in support of the war effort. Roy later worked at and retired from the Savanna Army Depot. His was the last of many generations of skilled craftsmen who relied on manual skill and knowledge of tools and materials before the advent of computers.
Roy and Dorothea Jane Mackey of Chadwick were married Jan 13, 1940, and moved to Chadwick with sons Roger and Steven in 1946. He helped establish and was Scoutmaster of a local Boy Scout Troop that led to creation of the “Scout Pond” south of town, a source of camp outs and largemouth bass for a time, and he arranged and led Apple River Canyon Boy Scout Camp trips. While a member of the Chadwick Village Council, in conjunction with the local Lions Club, he was instrumental in the planning and installation of street signs and house numbering that remain today.
Roy is survived by sons Roger Potter of Los Altos, California, and Steven Potter, Phoenix, Arizona, grandsons Christopher Potter, Frisco, Texas, and Ross Potter, Mesa, Arizona, and a younger brother, Loren Potter in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Roy was preceded in death by wife Dorothea in 1991.