He retired from public service at age 94 after serving in several positions
Tributes poured in Friday for E.D. Debbs Potts, a former lawmaker, president of the Oregon Senate, and until this month, the only chairman of the Oregon Lottery Commission.
Potts was found dead Friday morning at his home outside Grants Pass. He turned 95 last week. The Josephine County Sheriffs Office has not listed a cause of death.
Debbs Potts was a role model for many of us and a credit to his state, said Gov. Ted Kulongoski, who spoke at Potts final meeting Nov. 21. I will miss Debbs Potts, but his memory will live on in the minds of the children and citizens of Grants Pass.
When Director Brenda Rocklin made a brief announcement of his death, the Lottery Commission had just concluded its first meeting without Potts in its 19-year history. Obviously, its a sad day for the Oregon Lottery, Rocklin said later.
Adair Heard of Salem is the commissions longtime secretary.
He always had a lets-get-the-job-done attitude, said Heard, wife of Potts one-time Senate colleague Fred Heard.
Named after the Socialist Eugene Debs, Potts retained an extra b in his nickname. His year of birth was listed as 1910 there is no birth certificate but a later search by aides fixed the year at 1908.
Potts had concluded almost a half century of largely unpaid public service. He was mayor of Grants Pass from 1959 to 1961, a Democratic state senator from 1961 until his defeat in 1984 and president of the Senate from 1967 to 1971. He also was in the Navy in World War II.
He bridged the generations in public service, said John Powell, a former Democratic senator turned lobbyist. He tried to keep things in check, but he did not try to impose his will. Even when he disagreed, he tried to move things forward.
Until 1972, the Senate president was next in line to the governor and took over when the governor was out of state. Potts racked up 196 days as acting governor during the first term of Republican Gov. Tom McCall including the March 1968 riot at the Oregon State Penitentiary in Salem.
He was my oldest friend in politics, said Lynn Newbry of Talent, a Republican who came to the Senate the same year as Potts. He was a great citizen of Oregon.
Potts said he was looking forward to a 55th year of playing Santa Claus at the Grants Pass Elks Lodge and tending his collection of memorabilia at Pottsville, his home north of Grants Pass. Among the items is a chunk of stone from the second state Capitol, which burned down in 1935.
Former U.S. Rep. Bob Smith of Medford had dinner with Potts earlier this week.
He sounded pretty chipper, said Smith, who was the Republican speaker of the Oregon House when Potts was president of the Senate in 1969. To his last hours, he was cogent. He lived a full life and did not suffer. He made a great contribution to this state.
Sen. Lenn Hannon, R-Ashland, is the sole remaining senator to work directly with Potts.
It is such a personal loss for Dixie and me because he was such a good friend, said Hannon, who is resigning next month after 29 years. Debbs was one of a kind.
TIMOTHY J. GONZALEZ / Statesman Journal
Gov. Ted Kulongoski (right) congratulates E.D. Debbs Potts on Potts retirement as the chairman of the Oregon Lottery Commission during a retirement party in November. Potts, a longtime Oregon politician, was found dead Friday.
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