Martha Nell Wiggins “Nell” Potter, M.D., 84, passed away on Tuesday, May 17, 2022 in Pensacola, FL. Nell was born on August 6, 1937, to James Millard and Glessie Mae Harris Wiggins in Apopka, Florida. She graduated from Apopka Memorial High School, (Apopka, FL), in 1955, from Baylor University (Waco, TX) in 1959 with a B.A. in German and minors in History and Chemistry, and from the University of Florida with an M.D. in 1963.
Nell is survived by her sister Ora Jean Wiggins Henry (James Henry); daughters Martha Scott Potter Zlokovich, Ph.D. (Neil Zlokovich) and Kathryn Lee Potter Holsworth (Douglas Holsworth), son Patrick Mawson Potter (Deborah Bonnlander); grandchildren Samantha Lee Holsworth (Brodyjohn Stancliff), Aaron Michael Zlokovich (Stephanie), Benjamin Douglas Holsworth (Hayley), Matthew Alexander Zlokovich (Caitlin), Sarah Paige Potter, Winona Corinne Bonnlander, Wesley Mawson Potter, Clara Louise Bonnlander, and Juliette Van Doren Bonnlander; great-grandchildren Anniston Scott Zlokovich, Dean Alexander Zlokovich, James Wade Zlokovich, Oliver Francis Holsworth, Joannah Luahlee Holsworth, and Emersyn Ruth Zlokovich. She is preceded in death by her husband James Mawson Potter, MD, parents James Millard Wiggins and Glessie Mae Harris Wiggins, and twin (infant) grandsons David and Jason Zlokovich.
If you know Drs. Nell and Jim Potter at all, you know that Nell’s husband of 61 years passed away this January. Her children, family, and friends don’t think it is an exaggeration to say that she died of a broken heart after losing the love of her life.
Nell and Jim built their lives on a foundation of love. It was at UF where she met, fell in love with, and married fellow medical student Jim Potter – having sewn her own wedding dress the week before the wedding. That was just the beginning of her out-of-the-ordinary, creative, giving life and career, as well as their amazing love story.
DOCTOR, MOTHER, CHEF, TEACHER, SEAMSTRESS, ARTS PATRON, ZOOKEEPER, ENERGETIC PHYSICIAN! This was how a 1989 article in Baptist Healthcare magazine attempted to describe Nell, and she did live her life in all caps – as in full speed ahead, making the most of every minute. But even such a dramatic headline doesn’t begin to describe all the things she accomplished and all the people she touched with her energy, care, and love.
Like most women starting their careers in the 1960s, Nell dealt with many assumptions about how she might handle work and family life conflicts. Like most would-be medical students, she was grilled before being accepted into medical school at the University of Florida, but unlike the male applicants, she was questioned about whether she might drop out if she got married or pregnant while a medical student. “I told them if I married or got pregnant, I would keep going. And I did” (Fall 1991, Baptist Healthcare).
Indeed, “Nell married in medical school. During her junior year, her first baby was born; her second was born during her residency and her third while in private practice. She didn’t miss a day’s work. ‘I worked up a surgery patient at 11 p.m. the night before our third child was born,’ Potter recalls” (Fall 1991, Baptist Healthcare).
After Jim and Nell married during their second year of medical school, they lived with his mother, and as Nell puts it, “not so cleverly” welcomed their first child, Martha, during their third year of medical school. Nell graduated with her class rather than falling behind or dropping out due to her commitment to studying medicine and her lifelong habit of addressing problems in the most direct and practical way possible, as well as Jim’s unwavering support and her mother-in-law’s helping hands.
Dr. Nell W. Potter and Dr. James M. Potter both graduated from the University of Florida in 1963 with their medical degrees in hand and two-year old Martha on their hip. Their accomplishment was unusual enough in 1963 that their story made the papers in Gainesville, her hometown of Zellwood, FL, and his hometown of Cambridge, MD. With medical degrees in hand, they moved to Pensacola.
Pensacola played an especially important role in Nell and Jim’s lives from 1963 to 1967. After medical school, they moved to Pensacola where Nell worked as a resident with a general practice treating many Navy wives and Jim completed an internship and residency (Francischine, Winter 2019). They worshipped at Myrtle Grove United Methodist Church, forming friendships that enduring over nearly 60 years. During that time, they welcomed their second child, Kathy, in 1964. After her birth, Jim entered the Naval Aerospace Medical Institute and served as a Flight Surgeon at NAS in Pensacola. And to round out the important events in their lives that took place in Pensacola in the 1960s, in 1967 they welcomed their son, Pat, to the family.
After Pat was born, they moved back to Gainesville where Nell worked as one of the physicians at the UF Student Infirmary serving 30,000 students and Jim began his residency in Anatomic and Clinical Pathology at UF. So yes, she was the primary breadwinner for the family at that time.
She had thought because the students at UF were young, that work would be a “Band Aid” sort of practice. “But,” she said “I was surprised to find many students with diabetes, heart disorders, asthma, and other conditions that would have disabled them 25 or 30 years ago” (Fall 1991, Baptist Healthcare). “I decided to go into adolescent medicine because a lot of doctors don’t like to see teenagers or don’t have the time (for them). Teenagers have always been appealing to me. When they are hurting, you want to help them.“
While she worked at UF, Nell assisted the UF Gator football team with their medical needs and found she thoroughly enjoyed working with young athletes too. She even worked with Dr. Cade, the inventor of Gatorade, rehydrating working athletes. But after Jim completed his pathology residency in Gainesville, Pensacola lured them back.
They returned in 1972 for Jim’s staff appointment at Baptist Hospital. Both Nell and Jim practiced medicine in Pensacola for the majority of their medical careers, Jim as a pathologist at Baptist Hospital until he retired in 2002, and Nell as a general practitioner in her own independent adolescent and young adult medical practice until she retired in 2003.
When Nell opened her medical practice in Pensacola in 1972, she simply created the work environment she wanted by specializing in the care of 10-25 year olds. In addition, she served part time as the University of West Florida clinic physician and volunteered her time as one of two Escambia High School football team doctors.
She served as an Assistant Professor for the University of Florida, hosting medical residents who shadowed her during her work. She felt experience with treating adolescents was especially important for pediatric residents, many of whom focused on the medical needs of young children even though they would be seeing patients throughout their teens. Her patients appreciated coming to an office geared specifically to their needs – no Winnie the Pooh or Disney characters typical of pediatricians’ offices.
She was an avid (rabid?) Gator football fan (EHS and UF) and watched EHS games from the sidelines, ready to jump into action immediately if a player was injured. Nell was inducted into the Escambia High School Athletics Hall of Fame. She also attended many UF Gator games, faithfully attending the annual medical alumni reunions. She was thrilled to have watched Emmitt Smith play football throughout high school, then move on to play for her beloved UF Gators as well.
Nell served as a leader and member of many professional boards including the American Medical Association, Florida Medical Association, American College Health Association, Escambia County Medical Society, UF Foundation Lifetime Member, and UF Medical Advisory Committee. She was also faculty at the University of West Florida.
Dr. Nell Potter’s life was filled with love, family, faith, fun, art, sewing, cooking, gardening, dancing, loyalty, philanthropy, science, and service. If you are a Pensacola resident, you may have experienced her influence first hand. Have you ever visited The Zoo in Gulf Breeze, enjoyed music by the Pensacola Opera or the Pensacola Symphony, a play at the Little Theatre, the choir at Myrtle Grove United Methodist Church, or an EHS or UF Gator football game? If so, you benefitted from her passions. She was one of the kindest, most energetic, loyal, and loving people we have ever met.
She sewed for friends and family, having learned from her mother as a child. She made log cabin quilts for each of her children and grandchildren, as well as many baby quilts. When a baby was due, she enjoyed flexing her creative muscles and deciding exactly what unique, wonderful quilt pattern to create for each newborn. A kangaroo with its own little removable Joey? Teddy bears? Zoo menagerie? She sewed everything from wedding dresses, cheerleader and band uniforms, bathing suits, “bespoke” colostomy bag covers, colorful hospital gowns for her patients, seat covers for Jim’s Jeep, curtains, hundreds of dinner napkins, ballroom gowns, to tuxedos, dress shirts and suits for Jim. She hand made many costumes for the opera in its early days, and continued to build costumes, especially men’s things, for the theatre and children’s chorus. She always said that sewing was especially satisfying to her because she could complete and see the results of a project within hours, days, or weeks. She also said if she hadn’t had her sewing machine, she’d have never made it through med school.
Nell and Jim’s return to Pensacola not only allowed them to become very involved in the community, but also to expand their horizons within their own home. They invited exchange students from around the world to share their home for a year at a time. They welcomed Ellen West and Kathrein Stoeber Mueller from Germany, Christine Delbeke from Belgium, Adolpho Brizuela from Mexico, and Yutaka Ito from Japan – all of whom graduated from Escambia High School. They also hosted students from around the world for shorter time periods.
They also expanded their horizons by travelling extensively. In addition to exploring all 50 U.S. states (mostly on meandering paths visiting family and friends along the way) they also visited England, Ireland, Germany, Scotland, the Netherlands, Norway, Switzerland, Belgium, Peru, China, the Galapagos Islands, Ecuador, Brazil, Mexico, Australia, Costa Rica, Taiwan, and New Zealand, but Jim had a special place in his heart for Africa. They visited Africa many times and together Nell and Jim explored South Africa, Botswana, Namibia, Zimbabwe, Kenya, and Tanzania. Around a campfire in Africa, they and their close friends Patrick and Donna Quinn cooked up the idea of starting what would eventually become The Zoo in Gulf Breeze.
For over six decades, Pensacola did not just have an influence on their lives, they also had an influence on Pensacola. In the early 1980s they began bringing their safari dream about a bigger zoo to fruition, drawing up plans, and convincing investors to support their dream. They hoped to bring animals they had seen on their travels to northwest Florida. Construction on what would become The Zoo in Gulf Breeze began in 1983, and its continued success is testament to their dream of bringing a zoo to this community.
Her influence around the community was multi-faceted, as she volunteered her time to support many nonprofit organizations. She helped found and served on the Pensacola Opera Board, was a charter member of IMPACT 100, served on the CDAC Board, United Way Board, MGUMC Board, as President of the Pensacola Women’s Alliance, as a PACE Center for Girls trustee, and the Escambia County Health Facilities Board, to name a few. She cherished spending time with friends in Sweet Myrtles Red Hats and her “zoo crew”. Together Nell and Jim served as Co-chairs of the UF College of Medicine capital campaign which raised $31 million for their alma mater. After they retired, they taught science lessons at Navy Point Elementary School.
In order to honor Nell’s lifetime of work with adolescents and young adults, they donated funds to the University of Florida to endow the Nell W. Potter Assistant Professorship in Adolescent Medicine. While hiring the first physician to fill the position has been delayed by the pandemic, there should soon be a UF professor who will carry on her passion for healing and serving adolescents and young adults.
“In addition to their loyalty to UF and their demanding medical careers, the Potters are generous with their time and talent within the Pensacola community, including the Arts Council, the Greater Pensacola Symphony Orchestra, and the Local United Way Campaign” (Morris, 1988). Nell was an influential supporter of many things that brought her joy, including music. She and Jim sang in their church choir and she was instrumental in bringing Opera to Pensacola. They also supported the opera by providing housing for opera artists-in-residence over the years, and always up-bidding auctions at fundraising events for every cause they supported.
After realizing they were often attending events with great bands but just sitting and listening, they took ballroom dancing lessons for exercise and enjoyment. Every local band appreciated Nell and Jim getting out on the dance floor to get the party started.
Together, Nell and Jim lived out their faith in their hearts and actions. They were longtime, involved members of Myrtle Grove United Methodist Church and the Modern Samaritans Sunday School. In addition to singing in the choir, she led Sunday School groups, presented Christian Sex Education classes to teenagers and young adults, served as Chair of the Pastor-Parish Relations committee, and was an active member of the MGUMC Arbeiter Women’s Circle.
If you’d like to honor Dr. Potter and her legacy, enjoy a Gator football game (EHS or University of Florida), teach someone to sew, take a child to a zoo or museum, mentor a teenager, or invite a friend to enjoy music at the Pensacola Opera, Pensacola Symphony, or Myrtle Grove United Methodist Church, or donate to one of the causes she so avidly supported with her treasure, talents, and time:
Baylor University
Impact 100
Myrtle Grove United Methodist Church
PACE Center for Girls
Pensacola Children’s Chorus
Pensacola Little Theatre
Pensacola Opera
Pensacola Symphony Orchestra
United Way
University of Florida College of Medicine
University of West Florida Foundation
WSRE
Any organization that makes your life and the lives others fuller and richer.
References
(1989, Summer). Doctor, mother, chef, teacher, seamstress, arts patron, zookeeper:
Energetic physician combines many roles. Baptist Healthcare, pp. 18-21.
(1991, Fall). Women in Medicine. Baptist Healthcare, pp. 4-7.
Francischine, T. (2019, Winter). Work with it. Florida Physician, pp. 22-25.
Hertzler, L. (1991, March). Cover Story Drs. Jim & Nell Potter: A prescription for success. Pensacola Magazine, pp. 6-8.
Morris, P. A. (1988, Fall). Alumni Nell and Jim Potter; After their family, careers and alma mater comes The Zoo—an interesting change of pace for these two doctors. The University of Florida Physician, pp. 20-25.
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