Name E. Potter Role Historian | Education University of Chicago | |
Died November 22, 1997, Annapolis, Maryland, United States Books The great sea war, Bull Halsey, Admiral Arleigh Burke, The Naval Academy illustrated | ||
Elmer Belmont "Ned" Potter (27 December 1908 – 22 November 1997) was an American historian and author.
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He was the leading naval historian at the United States Naval Academy from the late 1940s to the mid-1970s. He was editor of the Naval Academy's textbook on naval history, Sea Power: A Naval History, in collaboration with Fleet Admiral Chester W. Nimitz.
Career
Born in Norfolk, Virginia to Judson Rice Potter, a grocer, and Fannie (née Beacham) Potter, he attended the University of Richmond, where he completed his B.A. degree in 1929. Known as "Ned" among family and friends, Potter taught history in high schools between 1931–41, before completing his Master of Arts degree in history at the University of Chicago in 1940.
In 1941, he joined the U.S. Naval Reserve and was assigned to the United States Naval Academy at Annapolis, Maryland, where he began to teach history. With the exception of three years service in the Pacific theater in 1943-45, Potter spent his entire career at the Naval Academy until he retired in 1977.
While at the Naval Academy he married Grace Brauer (8 August 1925—25 February 1997), on 21 May 1954, with whom he had two daughters: Katherine Anne, Lorraine Frances.
Potter lectured widely on naval history and was a member of the U.S. Naval Institute, the American Historical Association, and the American Association of University Professors.
Potter died of congestive heart failure in Annapolis, Maryland.