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Andrey Abraham Potter

purdue University president, 1945-1946

Layered newspapers, civic records and oral-history reels arranged as chronological evidence
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Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionJul 8, 2026
Entity authorityQ39511892
Source-derived summary

Andrey (Andy) Abraham Potter (August 5, 1882 – November 5, 1979) was a Russian-American mechanical engineer and educator, and the 52nd president of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers in the year 1933–34. He is known for his work in engineering and scientific education.

Biography

Youth and education

Potter was born in Vilnius in Russia, now the capital of Lithuania, as son of Gregor Potter and Rivza Potter in 1882. As a child, he was musically gifted and played ocarina. After regular education in Vilna, he emigrated in 1887 at the age of fifteen to the United States, where he would become a U.S. citizen in 1906.

In 1899 at the age of 17 he entered Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where he obtained his BSc in 1903.

Career in education and recognition

After graduation in 1903, Potter started as a turbine engineer at General Electric in Schenectady, New York. In 1905 he accepted an appointment at the Kansas State University College of Agriculture as assistant professor of Mechanical Engineering. In 1913 he was also appointed Dean of Engineering and became director of the university's Engineering Experiment Station. In 1920 Potter moved to the Purdue University, where he served as Dean of Engineering until his retirement in 1953.

Editorial summary

This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “Andrey Abraham Potter” as purdue University president, 1945-1946. Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.

Editorial reviewMost valuable as an event-and-institution map that identifies actors, dates and record creators for deeper historical inquiry. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1882, 1979, 1933, 1887—that can be checked directly. The authority record carries competing date values—1882-08-05, 1882—which should remain separate until their references and qualifiers are resolved. The account is most persuasive where Andrey, Abraham and Potter can be independently traced.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

The subject matters to the history & society register because the source frames it as purdue University president, 1945-1946. Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.

Evidence profile

The record creator and administrative purpose are central evidence, because official documentation reflects both action and institutional priorities. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jul 8, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q39511892. VIAF identifies the subject as 51287289. The Library of Congress control number is no96061200. 3 of 4 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 1 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1882, 1979, 1933 and 1887.

Critical limits

Official terminology may obscure informal participation, dissent or communities documented only indirectly. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Compare institutional narratives with records created by participants and affected communities. Dates and formal titles are useful anchors, but not substitutes for context.

Best used for
  • Event chronology
  • Institutional context
  • Locating named record creators
Verify next

Contemporary correspondence, government or organizational records, oral histories and cited historical scholarship.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Andrey Abraham Potter”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Andrey Abraham Potter primary sources, Andrey Abraham Potter archive and Andrey research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Andrey Abraham Potter”?
  2. Who created the surviving record, and for what administrative purpose?
  3. Which voices are present, absent or mediated by the institution?
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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from Andrey Abraham Potter” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.