Justin Potter

Justin Potter (a.k.a. "Jet" Potter) (1898–1961) was an American businessman from Tennessee. His business interests included coal mining in Kentucky and its sales distribution, a chemical corporation, insurance, banking and media. Staunchly opposed to labor unions, he hired armed guards to keep them away from his coal mines. He was also a strident opponent of the Tennessee Valley Authority.

Biography

Early life

Justin Potter was born in 1898 in Liberty, Tennessee.^[1][2] His father was a banker.^[2] When he was eight years old, he moved to Nashville, Tennessee with his family.^[2] He had a brother, Edward Potter, Jr. (1896-1976), who founded the Commerce Union Bank in Nashville (now merged with Bank of America).^[3]

Career

In 1920, he founded the Nashville Coal Co., a coal distribution company.^[1][3] By 1955, it had become the tenth largest coal company in the United States.^[1][2] That year, he sold it to businessman Cyrus Eaton (1883–1979) for US$18 million.^[1][2][4] In 1958, he became the majority shareholder of Virginia-Carolina Chemical Co. and served as its President.^[1] Additionally, he served on the Board of Directors of the Cherokee Insurance Corporation.^[1] He owned over 100,000 acres of coalfields in Western Kentucky as President of the Crescent Coal Co., headquartered ion Central City, Kentucky.^[1][3][5] For example, he owned a large coal mine in Uniontown, Kentucky.^[6] Under his leadership, the presence of labor unions were not allowed and he was categorically opposed to them.^[1][2] He personally expressed his disapproval of the tactics used by union leader John L. Lewis (1880-1969).^[5] He even hired armed guards to keep union members away from his coal mines.^[3] Additionally, he was a mentor to Joe C. Davis, Jr. (1919-1989) in the coal distribution industry.^[7]

He was a strident opponent of the Tennessee Valley Authority and tried to unseat both Estes Kefauver (1903–1963) and Albert Gore, Sr. (1907–1998), who supported the TVA.^[1] In Farm and Ranch Magazine, of which he was majority owner from 1956 to 1959, the TVA was routinely called a "socialistic" project.^[1] Moreover, he bought full-page advertisements in the Chicago Tribune in which he called the project a "communist rathole."^[2]

Though his wife, he donated US$50,000 to President Richard Nixon (1913–1994) in 1972.^[8]

He became one of the wealthiest men in the Southern United States, with an estimated wealth of US$200 million.^[1]

Personal life

He married Valere (Blair) Potter, a philanthropist who helped found the Peabody Preparatory School of Musical Arts in 1964, now known as the Blair School of Music at Vanderbilt University.^[8][9] The Valere Blair Potter Chair at the Blair School of Music as well as the Valere Potter Scholarship Fund at the Vanderbilt University School of Nursing is also named in her honour.^[10][11] They had a daughter, Anne Potter, who married David K. Wilson (1919–2007). Their son, Justin P. Wilson, is a Republican politician in Tennessee and an adjunct professor at Vanderbilt University.^[3]

He suffered a stroke in the 1950s.^[1] He died of cancer in December 1961.^[1][12]

Legacy

The Boy Scouts center on the corner of Woodmont Boulevard and Hillsboro Road in Nashville is named in his honor.^[3][13]

References