Boulder-born Denver attorney Gary speaks softly, moves swiftly and has been quite a stick ever since his father introduced him to the game as a teenager. Dad gave him a hairbrush in the shape of a driver, which he continues to brandish today, if less necessarily.
Excelling in basketball through Regis High School and Brophy Prep in Phoenix after the family moved to Arizona, Potter went to Regis College intent on making the freshman basketball and baseball teams until hoops coach Joe B. Hall, who went on to great fame at the University of Kentucky, coaxed Gary into concentrating on golf.
He’s been leaving big spike marks ever since. After graduating Regis and earning his law degree at the University of Colorado in 1966, he spent a dozen years in the corporate world while becoming a legal beagle and eagle seeker.
He has been a Denver CC member since 1973, three-time club champ and 1993 president; several-time stroke and match play champ at Northglenn GC, Lakewood CC, Bear Creek GC and Denver CC; Charlie Coe Invitational winner with John Olive; Frontier Airlines Amateur Championship; 10 CGA team championships with assorted partners (including consecutive Parent-Child victories with son Matt), forgetting countless other events.
Even more accomplished as an administrator than as a player, Potter has been on the Colorado Golf Association’s Board of Governors since 1973 (Governor Emeritus since 1988); board member and legal counsel of the Trans-Mississippi Golf Association since 1979 and tournament director in 1980, 2001 and 2010; board member since 1974 (president 1977 and 1988) of the Pacific Coast Golf Association; served as legal counsel for the Colorado Section PGA 1985-1992 and elected honorary member 1993; served 18 years on three different USGA committees in Colorado and Arizona and has been a board member of the Colorado Golf Hall of Fame since 1998, serving as president in 2006-2007.
He has worked tirelessly for juniors, initiating junior golf all-state teams and pushing for participation in Junior Americas Cup matches. He worked to create a liaison between the CGA and clubs; brought the CGA into the Pacific Coast Association; chaired Course Rating Committees and helped implement USGA slope rating procedures.
He has served on countless boards—for professional and amateur sports teams, corporations, hospitals and more. He was athletic director of St. Benedict’s School, and for 33 years coached more than 40 junior sports teams.
And underscoring it all is Gary’s boundless passion for golf.
