“I Have Given the Best Part of My Life to Masonry” - 1923

 

Dr. George Potts in 1923

        DR. GEORGE POTTS, KNOWN AS “FATHER OF MASONIC HOME” - HAS BEN MASON FIFTY-FIVE YEARS

Dr. George Potts Says Masonry Greatest Institution Except Church

 

  "I have given the best part of my life to Masonry, and I consider the Masonic order the greatest institution in the world with the exception of the church," says Dr. George Potts, of Providence Forge, Va., who is here attending his fiftieth consecutive grand annual communication of the Grand Lodge of Virginia.

 Dr. Potts is known as “the father of the Masonic Home of Virginia,” having offered the resolution in 1890 to have a committee appointed to draft a charter for the home. He has made an address before the Grand Lodge every year for the past thirty-three, and is the best-known member of the order in the state.

 When asked his age, Dr. Potts would say only that he is "seventy-five plus," this secret never paving been revealed even to his family, he said. He is a veterinary surgeon, and is the oldest of his profession in the state. He was born in England, and came to this country in 1867. He states that he has not a single relative in this country. 

-News Leader, 15 February 1923