POTTER, Lois Shefte Potter, Dr. 1924-1999

POTTER, SHEFTE, JOHNSON, STEBBINS

Posted By: S. Bell
Date: 5/3/2012 at 20:53:24

DR. LOIS SHEFTE POTTER, PhD was born December 15, 1924 in Volga, South Dakota, the daughter of Dr. Engebret K. and Laura (Johnson) Shefte. She died Saturday, November 27, 1999, at Sartori Memorial Hospital in Cedar Falls, at 74 years of age, of lung cancer.

She married Albert Andrew Potter on June 18, 1960 at Danforth Chapel in Iowa City, Iowa. He preceded her in death on December 7, 1997. Lois was a 1942 graduate of Volga High School.

She graduated from Yankton College, Yankton, South Dakota, in 1946, with certifications in English, speech, social studies, and Spanish. Lois received additional training in radio and drama at the Univ. of South Dakota in 1947. She received her Master’s degree in speech pathology from the Univ. of Iowa in 1950. Lois completed her PhD in speech pathology at the Univ. of Wisconsin at Madison in 1959. Her teaching career began in 1946 at the high school in Redfield, South Dakota. During 1947-1948 she taught English, Speech and Drama in Yankton High School. She worked in private practice with aphasic speech patients in Burlington, Iowa during the summer of 1950 before joining the faculty of UNI in the Fall of 1950 as a speech and hearing consultant at the Malcolm Price Laboratory School.

While doing graduate work during 1953-1954, Lois served as a speech therapist on the Medical Diagnostic Team of the Cerebral Palsy Center of the Univ. of Wisconsin Hospitals. She returned to the Lab School in 1954 and remained there as a speech therapist and member of the UNI Graduate Faculty until her retirement in 1991. During her time at the Lab School, Lois helped over 1000 children with speech, language and hearing disorders, and served the local area and the state through UNI’s extension programs. She was a Danforth Foundation Fellow and a member of Pi Kappa Delta, Pi Lambda Theta and Sigma Alpha Eta honorary societies. Lois served in several officer positions of the Iowa and National chapters of the Council for Exceptional Children, the Iowa and the American Speech and Hearing Associations, and the Association for Student Teaching.

Lois is survived by her son, Lee S. Potter of Morenci, Arizona; her step-son, Don Potter and his wife Judy of Beavercreek, Ohio; their two daughters, Jennifer Potter of Glendale, California and Diane Potter of Oak Park, Illinois; a niece, Katherine Stebbins and a nephew, Richard Shefte, both of Omaha, Nebraska; and her sister-in-law, Beatrice Shefte of Bellevue, Nebraska.

She was preceded in death by her husband Albert and her parents; her brother, Duane Shefte; and a nephew, Steven Shefte.

Memorial services will be 1:00 p.m. Tuesday, November 30, 1999 at the funeral home. Memorials may be directed to The University of Iowa Foundation, PO Box 4550, Iowa City, Iowa 52244 for the Albert A. and Lois Shefte Potter fund for prevention of blindness at the Center for Macular Degeneration.

[Source: Dahl - Van Hove - Schoof Funeral Home]