Barbara Potter passes away at 87; remembered for honesty, community service

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Barbara Ogden McClurg Potter

Updated: February 27, 2012 8:47AM

Barbara Ogden McClurg Potter, a fiercely loyal woman whose life’s accomplishments ranged from working for the CIA during the Korean War to delivering nursing care via horseback in the Appalachian Mountains after World War II, died peacefully at her home in Florida on Jan. 20.

Potter, a Libertyville resident with strong ties to Lake Forest, was 87 when she died following a brief battle with cancer.

Committed to preservation of open space in Lake County, Potter was instrumental in forming the 5,000-acre Liberty Prairie Conservancy in the 1980s. She also facilitated the creation of the Almond Marsh Preserve.

Her community service tendencies had deep roots. Potter was the great grand niece of Chicago’s first mayor, William B. Ogden. Her father, Ogden Trevor McClurg, was among the earliest developers of apartment buildings in the city, starting on East Lake Shore Drive. He also founded the Chicago Yacht Club.

Pilot’s license

Potter grew up in Chicago and summered in Lake Forest. She attended Ethel Walker School in Simsbury, Conn. and Smith College in Northhampton, Mass. As a teenager, she obtained her aircraft pilot’s license at Great Lakes Naval Training Station. After college, Potter volunteered for the Visiting Nurse Association in Appalachia, delivering health care on horseback.

“She was a member of the Frontier Nursing Association all of her life,” her son Charlie Potter of Lake Forest said. “She was a very accomplished horseback rider.”

Potter left Appalachia for Washington D.C., where she worked for the CIA.

“We never knew what she did with the CIA,” Charlie Potter said. “Literally 60 years later, she said, ‘I’m never going to tell anybody.’”

Potter returned to Chicago in 1954 and married Charles S. Potter, president of the Union Stockyards of Chicago.

Longtime friend Mary Kneibler of Lake Forest spoke highly of Potter.

“She was just plain honest,” Kneibler said. “I have had many friends but very few I know who were that exact.”

Skier, sailor

Potter was an accomplished athlete who skied for Sports Illustrated photo shoots in Morocco, sailed and was an avid tennis and golf player until shortly before her death.

“If good sportsmanship was a trophy, she would have gotten triple of those,” Kneibler said.

Joan Blair of Lake Forest considered Potter “a perfectly remarkable person,” she said.

“I never knew anyone who had so many facets. She loved life, she loved people and she lived to the fullest. She didn’t leave any stones unturned,” Blair said.

Among the lessons he learned from his mother, Charlie Potter said, the best were “to be honest, forthright and to have compassion.”

His mother “believed very strongly in family and community,” Charlie Potter said. “Both she and my father instilled in all of us a sense of giving back and that it was very important to be involved in one’s community and to contribute of one’s time and resources. We really, all of us, have done that in our own ways.”

‘Absolute leader’

Potter also was a lifelong avid bird hunter, traveling to Scotland, South Africa and much of the United States in that pursuit. Just months before her death, she could still be found in a duck blind on her family’s Libertyville farm, shooting alongside her children and grandchildren.

She was “no shrinking violet,” Charlie Potter said. “People used to joke that even my father called her Mrs. Potter. She was an absolute leader in everything she did.”

Potter was a longtime civic leader in Chicago, serving as president and board member of several organizations.

“She really was one of a kind and will be greatly missed by everybody,” Blair said.

Potter is survived by her children: Barbara Fuller Potter, a step-daughter; and Trevor Alexander McClurg Potter, Helen Potter Wagner and Charles S. Potter Jr.; and her grandchildren.

A celebration of Potter’s life will be held in Lake Forest in the spring.