Long-time County Councilmember and beloved public servant Neal Potter died May 27.

He was 93.

Potter was well-known for his commitment to civic engagement and public service. Between 1970 and 1998, he served on the County Council and was the County Executive for four years. The Montgomery County Council proclaimed him Councilmember Emeritus in 1998, being called "A man of his times, a man for all times." On the international level, Potter helped found a world peace organization, United World Federalists, now called Citizens for Global Solutions.

Born on March 22, 1915 in Arlington, he was raised on a dairy farm near Cabin John, Md. A graduate of Bethesda-Chevy Chase High School, Potter attended Johns Hopkins University and the University of Minnesota, receiving master's and doctoral degrees in public finance and international economics. A long-time advocate for peace and human rights, he led student strikes against war and fascism on both campuses in the 1930s.

He was an economist with the Office of Price Administration from 1941 to 1946, and then went on to teach economics at Carnegie Institute of Technology and Washington State College between 1946 and 1951. He then served as the Western Field Director for the United World Federalists. He returned to the Washington area to place his second daughter in NIH, who suffered from leukemia. At the time, Potter worked for Resources for the Future, co-producing a book about the feasibility of gleaning resources from the Antarctic.

He was a life member of the NAACP, and founding member of the United Nations Association, the Anti-Defamation League of B'nai Brith, and the Americans for Democratic Action, in addition to other, shorter-term memberships in civic, human rights, and environmental organizations.

Potter loved to deal with tough issues on many fronts and was active in a wide variety of civic associations. In 1960, he was the principal organizer of the Citizens Committee for Fair Taxation. From 1965 to 1976, he was president of the Montgomery County Citizens Planning Association 1965-67 and was later co-chairman of the Metropolitan Washington Coalition for Clean Air. He was a board member of the Capital Area United Nations Association, as well as president of the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments.

Since his time in public office, Potter received a number of honors, including the Governor's Citation, the Washington Council of Government's Metropolitan Public Service Award, the Sentinel's Citizen of the Year award, the National Association of Counties' Distinguished Service Award, the Audubon Naturalist Society's Legislator of the Year Award, the Montgomery County Civic Federation's Citation for Distinguished Public Service, the James K. Mathews Distinguished Service Award, as well as the Harold Seidman Award for Public Service.

He is survived by his wife of 68 years, Marion, his daughter JoAnn and his brother Lloyd Potter of Potomac.

Memorial services will be held on Tuesday, July 10 at 1:00 p.m. at the Chevy Chase United Methodist Church on 7001 Connecticut Ave. in Chevy Chase. Contributions can be made to Citizens for Global Solutions of Washington, D.C. or the Chevy Chase United Methodist Church.