John E. Potzger was born July 31, 1886, in Presque Isle County, Michigan. He grew up in the forested county, where he attended a one-room school. For more than twenty years Potzger taught at a Lutheran day school in Indianapolis. He also studied music and ran a private piano studio for some ten years. He first became associated with Butler when he returned to school while in his late thirties, earning his B.A. degree in 1927 and his M.A. in botany in 1931. After earning his Ph.D. in botany from Indiana University in 1932, Potzger joined the Botany Department at Butler University. After Dr. Friesner’s death in 1953, Potzger reluctantly became the head of the department. He preferred to do research rather than see to the administrative tasks of running the department. His major research efforts were in pollen studies and postglacial forest succession. Potzger did field work in Vermont, Wisconsin, and Quetico-Superior Memorial Forest during his career as a botanist. Throughout his teaching career, he maintained a strong interest in elementary and high school science instruction. He collaborated with his wife, Margaret Esther Whitney (who held a Ph.D. in zoology from the University of Michigan), on nature study workbooks for children on trees, insects, and birds. He was a member of the Central Association of Science and Association of Science and Mathematics Teachers, edited its yearbook from 1940 to 1945, and served as its president in 1948. Potzger was also a stalwart supporter of the Ecological Society of America. In 1954 he served a term as the society’s president. Shortly after attending the ESA annual meeting in 1955, Potzger died of a heart attack. He was survived by his wife, Margaret, who donated his papers to Butler University.