American Medical Biographies/Potter, William Warren
Potter, William Warren (1838–1911)
William Warren Potter, president of the New York State Board of Medical Examiners, editor of the Buffalo Medical Journal, and permanent secretary of the American Association of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, was born at Strykersville, N. Y., December 31, 1838. He was born and lived in a medical atmosphere, as his father, Lindorf Potter, and his paternal grandfather were both practitioners. His mother was Mary Green Blanchard Potter. Young Potter was educated at Arcade and Genesee Seminaries and at the University of Buffalo, where he received his M. D. upon the attainment of his majority in 1859. Engaged in practice with his uncle, Dr. Milton E. Potter, in Cowlesville, N. Y., on the breaking out of the Civil War he enlisted as assistant surgeon of the 49th regiment of New York Volunteers and saw service under McClellan and Burnside. He was captured by the confederates in 1862 and was confined in Libby prison, was exchanged and served as surgeon with the 57th regiment of New York volunteers at Chancellorsville and Gettysburg, and then had charge of the first division hospital of the second army corps, continuing in that position until mustered out at the close of the war. Then he was brevetted lieutenant-colonel for meritorious service.
After the war Dr. Potter was coroner of the District of Columbia, and was examining surgeon for the pension department, and after that practised at Mount Morris and Batavia, New York, being physician to the New York State Institution for the Blind.
In 1881 he returned to Buffalo and began to make a specialty of gynecology and obstetrics, helping to organize the American Association of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, becoming first secretary and editor of the transactions and filling the dual position for twenty-two years. The fame and wide influence of the association were to him matters of loving pride and he gave his duties careful, exacting and systematic attention. In 1891 he was president of the Medical Society of the State of New York and did much to revise its code of ethics, and when the medical practice act of the state went into effect, September first of that year, the society nominated him as a member of the board of medical examiners and he was elected. On the death of Dr. Wey, in 1897, Dr. Potter was elected president of the board and ten years later, on the passage of the new medical practice act, he was elected president and retained the office until his death. He was an ideal presiding officer, thoroughly schooled in parliamentary procedure, and gave great satisfaction to his confreres and to lawyers and witnesses who appeared before the board, by his judicial attitude.
In 1888 Dr. Potter became editor of the Buffalo Medical Journal and shortly after its owner. As editor he developed a good English style and kept in touch with the advances of medical knowledge, in later years withdrawing from practice and devoting himself exclusively to his editorial duties and to work of his official positions.
He had a remarkably retentive memory, coupled with fluency of speech, so that he was a welcome guest at postprandial functions. His associates on the board of examiners were most loyal to him and selected him each year as their representative to the council on medical education of the American Medical Association.
Dr. Potter married Emily A. Bostwick, of Lancaster, New York, in 1859, and they had three children. He died at Buffalo, March 14, 1911, aged 72 years.