William Everett Potter
William Everett Potter (born July 17, 1905 in Oshkosh , Wisconsin , † December 5, 1988 in Orlando , Florida ) was an American engineer , major general of the US Army Corps of Engineers and governor of the Panama Canal Zone from 1956 to 1960 .
Life
Parker joined the US Army after school and was promoted to lieutenant in 1928 after graduating from the US Military Academy at West Point . Subsequently, he was initially an officer in a company of the First Engineers of the US Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) in Washington, DC and, between 1929 and 1932, geodesist for the Nicaragua Canal , an unrealized canal connection between the Atlantic and Pacific , which lead through Nicaragua should. He also studied civil engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and graduated in 1933.
In 1937 he was appointed to a professorship for military science and tactics at Ohio State University , where he taught until 1940. He then became an officer with the 25th Armored Engineers and the 1138th Armored Engineering Group before it between 1943 and 1945 during World War II in the European theater of war assistant for planning, operation and communication in the European Theater of Operations US Army (ETOUSA).
After the end of the war, he became district engineer for USACE in Kansas City in 1945 and then from 1949 to 1951 deputy chief engineer for public works at the US Department of Defense . He then became the engineer in charge of the Missouri River Division of the USACE in Omaha .
In 1956 he was promoted to major general and appointed governor of the Panama Canal Zone . He held this position until 1960.
His tenure was marked by a series of impressive performances as the introduction of the 20 million US dollars -project to build the Thatcher Ferry Bridge (now the Bridge of the Americas) , an arch bridge that the Panama Canal spans and thus the capital Panama City connects with the western part of the country. Plans were also made to expand the Panama Canal to a width of at least 150 meters and to illuminate the Gaillard Cut to enable 24-hour transit operations. There was also general improvement such as a special education program for disabled children.
On the basis of a 1955 contract with Panama, Potter also oversaw the introduction of a fair wage system in order to avoid disadvantages due to citizenship , as well as the transfer of real estate to Panama worth 28 million US dollars, such as the "Hotel Washington" in Colón . In addition, utility and support facilities operated by Panama have been closed. Potter also abandoned plans to build a new governor's residence and decided to renovate the old official residence to preserve its historic value.
On July 7, 1959, he appeared on the television show To Tell the Truth . In 1968 he settled in Orlando, Florida and worked as a civil engineer to help plan the infrastructure of the Walt Disney World Resort .
Web links
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Potter, William Everett |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | American Army Officer and Governor of the Panama Canal Zone |
| DATE OF BIRTH | July 17, 1905 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Oshkosh , Wisconsin |
| DATE OF DEATH | 5th December 1988 |
| Place of death | Orlando , Florida |