Cy Potts

Cy Potts, age 95, of Grants Pass, died Saturday, May 18, 2013 at Three Rivers Medical Center.

A viewing will be at 9:00 a.m., Thursday, May 30, 2013 at the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints-Stake Center. A funeral service will follow at 10:00 a.m. Hull & Hull Funeral Directors are in charge of arrangements.

Burial will be at 10:00 a.m., Saturday, June 1, 2013 at Tracy Cemetery in Tracy, California.

Donations may be made to Boy Scouts of America, Crater Lake Council, 3039 Hanley Road, Central Point, Oregon 97502.

The eldest of three children, Cy was born Cyril Joseph Potts on May 5, 1918 in Oakland, California to Elza & Carmelita Potts. He was raised Catholic and attended all Catholic schools growing up and graduated from St. Elizabeth’s High School in Oakland. On May 16, 1942 in Reno, Nevada he married Phyllis Aardema. For 15 years he worked for Southern Pacific Railroad as a signal inspector, then in 1957 began working at the Lawrence Radiation Laboratory in Livermore, California as an electronics engineer. Cy and an associate built the first computer used in space which was a top secret mission, which was never discussed until his children were grown. Cy lived in Utah; Nevada; Oakland, California in Sheffield Village; Pleasanton, California; Tracy, California and then Sequim, Washington where he lived for eight years before moving to Grants Pass in 1992.

In 1970, he joined the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and in 1971, Cy & Phyllis were sealed in the Oakland Temple. He was a member of the Riverside Ward. Cy served in the High Council and in a Bishopric while in Sequim, Washington. Together with his wife, he served a full-time mission to the Alabama Birmingham Mission and was mostly assigned to the Jasper Branch, and they were active in Temple Work in the Seattle and Medford Temples.

He was a charter member of Computer Bugs, and a member of S.O.A.R.C. (Southern Oregon Amateur Radio Club) and RASCAL.

Cy was a Ham Radio Operator for 78 years, his call letters were W7MQL having received his first license in 1935. He helped people with antennas clear into his 90’s.

Survivors include his two daughters, Helen Rhoades of Grants Pass and Maryellen Olmstead of Tracy , California; two sons, Greg Potts of Sequim, Washington and Gordon Potts of Manteca, California; eight grandchildren and three great-grandchildren.

He is preceded in death by his wife in 2004, his parents and his siblings, Virginia “Dee” and Francis “Frank”.