Stuart L. Potter

Stuart L. Potter (1904 to 1975) served on the Board of Selectmen from 1954 to 1969, was a town meeting member from 1956 to 1972 and sat on the Finance Committee from 1970 to 1973. According to his age at death he was born on May 30, 1904. On October 14, 1933, he married Marion E. McQuade of Lowell. The Potters lived on High Street, where in 1961 the town meeting voted unanimously to rezone land owned by Stuart and Marion E. Potter from a rural residence district to a general business district.

Potter was elected a selectman in March 1954 as a new member, with 1,261 votes, and in the same years he served on the committee that planned the town's Tercentenary in 1955. He was re-elected in 1957, 1960, 1963 and 1966. In 1957 and 1958 he was vice-chairman under Arthur R. Hallenborg, and in 1958 he shared responsibility for the fire and water departments, the town halls and the dog officer. From 1966 he was again vice-chairman, under Paul F. Newman, and in 1968 he sat on a sub-committee for a new program of street lighting.

In March 1969 he lost his seat by seven votes: Michael E. McLaughlin led the field and Donald W. Davis took the second seat with 1,749 votes to Potter's 1,742. He stayed active in town affairs. He served on the Billerica Historical Society commission from 1966 to 1970, on the committee for the adoption of a town flag from 1969 to 1972, on the Finance Committee from 1970 until he resigned in June 1973, and from 1972 to 1974 on the committee for the two hundredth anniversary of the American Revolution, where he appears in the 1973 photograph of the Bicentennial Commission.

He died on April 25, 1975, aged 70. At the 1975 town meeting the members rose in a moment of silence for "a former Town Meeting member, member of the Finance Committee and Selectmen," and the town report listed his offices in its memoriams.

References

1. Marriages, 1933: Stuart L. Potter of Billerica and Marion E. McQuade of Lowell, October 14
2. Annual election, March 1954: Stuart L. Potter elected Selectman with 1,261 votes
3. Town committees, 1954: Tercentenary Committee, including Stuart L. Potter
4. Report of the Board of Selectmen, 1957: Potter re-elected; vice-chairman under Arthur R. Hallenborg
5. Warrant, 1961: Article 58, rezoning land of Stuart and Marion E. Potter on High Street
6. Report of the Board of Selectmen, 1966: Stuart L. Potter re-elected and chosen vice-chairman
7. Annual election, March 1969: Selectmen, Davis 1,749, Potter 1,742
8. Photograph of the Bicentennial Commission, 1973, with Stuart Potter standing
9. Memoriams, 1975: Stuart L. Potter, died April 25, 1975, aged 70 years 10 months 26 days, with his offices
10. Town meeting, 1975: moment of silence for Stuart Potter, former selectman, town meeting member and Finance Committee member