2008 Woodie Awards
President's past and present collide
SCSU President Earl Potter talks about his life growing up in a small farming community in Rhode Island
Chad Eldred
Issue date: 9/24/07 Section: News
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Hanging with his yacht club friends, spending warm-weather weekends sailing and racing small boats in the bays surrounding Rhode Island.
And there he was, too.
Hunting quail in the fields across from his house, a small family farm, waiting for his dad to return home from his humble living of 50 years, selling eggs and chickens door-to-door.
And Sundays, there he was.
Embracing the word of God emanating from the pulpit at his conservative, evangelical Baptist church, looking for ways to turn scripture into service.
And weekdays, there he was.
Attending high school alongside his nearly 1,300 other classmates, serving as co-captain of the football team and president of student council. And yes, at the end of his high school career, voted most likely to succeed.
Such was the life for SCSU President Earl Potter growing up in North Kingstown, R.I., one of several small farming communities clustered outside the main hub of Providence.
It was a life of service and privilege, of blending in and sticking out, of searching for a path which would ultimately lead him to SCSU's doorstep.
"I sort of lived in different worlds when I was a kid," Potter said. "And they were all slightly different places with different values, and pretty early in my life I was trained in how people work with each other and relate to each other."
The yacht club was full of upper middle-class kids who would gather on the beach to drink beer and smoke cigarettes. Church was full of members who didn't dance, didn't go to movies and, ultimately, didn't care to, and public school was rough and tumble, full of kids from all walks of life and from various socio-economic backgrounds.
"I grew up with people who didn't believe the same things or practice their lives in the same ways, so I moved between them, and I was welcome in each one of those communities," Potter said.
But it wasn't always easy exemplifying the values he honored most while at the same time maintaining relationships with friends, family and church members, all of whom led conflicting lifestyles.
For example, the teachings of his church said he shouldn't spend time with his yacht club friends because their behaviors were out of line with what the church taught. Knowing his friends were caring, thoughtful people, however, Potter said he knew the truth.