A Friday Visit with Jim Korkis: General Joe Potter
By Dave Shute
Welcome back to Fridays with Jim Korkis! Jim, the dean of Disney historians and author of Jim’s Gems in The easy Guide, writes about Walt Disney World history every Friday on yourfirstvisit.net.
GENERAL JOE POTTER
By Jim Korkis
William E. “Joe” Potter was born in Oshkosh, Wisconsin, on July 17, 1905. He died on December 5, 1988, in Orlando, Florida, at the age of 83 of heart failure. He was inducted as a Disney Legend in 1997.
As former president of Walt Disney Attractions Dick Nunis recalled in 1988 to the Orlando Sentinel newspaper, “Joe was a man Walt Disney was very fond of. Without Joe Potter there would be no Walt Disney World today.”
It was General Potter who got the land in Central Florida prepared for building. Admiral Joe Fowler then was in charge of construction on the property.
Potter oversaw construction of the Walt Disney World Resort’s entire infrastructure. He supervised the building and operation of the underground utilities and sewer, power, and water treatment plants that were considered revolutionary at the time.
He also developed drainage canals for the entire property, which were known affectionately as “Joe’s ditches,” and kept the water table constant.
“I went out and got three crackerjack college professors to show me how to do it,” Potter joked in an interview a year before his death. “And then I got me another professor to help put the utilities underground.”
During World War II, Potter directed logistical planning for the invasion of northern France, a transportation operation nicknamed “Red Ball Express.” In 1956, President Dwight D. Eisenhower appointed Potter to serve as governor of the Panama Canal Zone.
At the end of his tenure as governor, and after 38 years with the United States Army, Potter retired as an Army Major General in 1960. In his long career, he had been decorated with the Distinguished Service Medal, the Legion of Merit, the Bronze Star, and the Croix de Guerre.
Soon after his “retirement,” he became executive vice president of the 1964-65 New York World’s Fair and was responsible for handling the construction of the federal and state attractions. These included 26 state pavilions and the $17-million United States pavilion.
At this time, he met Walt Disney (who had supplied attractions for four pavilions at the fair) who immediately realized that this was the man to be the vice president of his mysterious Florida Project and to prepare the land so it was suitable for construction.
“It didn’t take you long to realize that Walt was a beginner of things, not a finisher,” Potter said, meaning that Walt would spark the initial idea but depend on others to make it a reality.
Potter retired from Disney in 1974 as a senior vice president of Walt Disney World, as well as president of the Board of Supervisors of the Reedy Creek Improvement District. He later was president of Potter, Fowler and Associates Management Consultants and served on numerous civic and business boards, including the Greater Orlando Aviation Authority.
“I knew that we were going to have a project in Orlando many months before I joined Disney in September 1965,” stated Potter in 1976. “I had various functions. One was to establish the government, the Reedy Creek Improvement District. In that way, we were able to establish our own building department, develop our own building code, establish our own zoning, and do all of those things that are normally done by a county.
“You must realize that at the time Orange County did not have the facilities to examine plans for, let’s say, a castle. No complicated buildings had been built in Orange County so the county, of course, was not staffed to examine plans and conduct the inspections requiring all buildings meet the safety and welfare specifications of those buildings.
“We spend an enormous amount of time planning things and dissecting them, ‘committeeing’ them down darn near to death and then finally with approval, building them.”
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Thanks, Jim! Most Disney World fans know that one of the ferries that travel the Seven Seas Lagoon is named after General Potter.
And come back next Friday for even more from Jim Korkis!
In the meantime, check out his books, including Secret Stories of Walt Disney World: Things You Never You Never Knew
, which reprints much material first written for this site, and The Vault of Walt: Volume 4, and his contributions to The easy Guide to Your First Walt Disney World Visit, all published by Theme Park Press.
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