Max Potash of Swampscott, MA, a prominent businessman and political activist, died at home on June 13 at the age of 97. He had lived in Swampscott since 1952 in the house he built on Laurel Road. Mr. Potash was married for 67 years to Leola (Hilda Russell), who died in 2010.
Mr. Potash was born on November 16, 1920 in Harlem, NYC. He grew up in the Bronx in a Jewish neighborhood where Yiddish was his household language. His mother was a homemaker. His father was a strongly pro-union bread baker (bagel and cake makers belonging to separate unions). Mr. Potash was a precocious child and graduated from Morris High School in the Bronx at the age of 15. The first in his family to attend college, he received a B.S. in Chemical Engineering from City College of New York at 20. He took his first professional job in Chattanooga, TN with Combustion Engineering (now ABB) to do research and training on welding for high pressure boilers. In 1942 he went to work for the Tennessee Valley Authority in Muscle Shoals, Alabama at the chemical plant associated with the Wilson Dam. Following that he did research for the Publicker Alcohol Company in Philadelphia, PA. Due to Japanese control of rubber production in the Pacific, the company was attempting to develop a substitute for natural rubber from synthetic latex. During his career he did engineering work which, though he was not told so at the time, was part of the Manhattan Project. In 1948, Mr. Potash moved to Massachusetts to work for the American Polymer Company in Peabody and following that the Stahl Finish Company also in Peabody.
With help from the Stahl brothers he and his colleague Hal Naidus founded their own company, Polyvinyl Chemicals, Inc. in 1953. PCI produced specialty chemicals for floor polish, leather finish, textiles, and paper coatings as well as acrylic solid and solution polymers for paints, inks, and vinyl and textile coatings. Mr. Potash was beloved by employees of PCI due to progressive and empowering management practices: providing engineering scholarships for employees, advancing careers of women and minorities, and for scrupulous safety and environmental compliance. He focused the company on new product development, successfully competing against industry giants such as Dow Chemical, and also expanded the business internationally to Brazil, Spain, and the Netherlands. PCI was acquired by Beatrice Foods Company in 1965 and Mr. Potash continued as President of PCI and served as a vice president with Beatrice Foods in new acquisitions and new product development in the chemical division until his retirement 1985. After retirement Mr. Potash consulted in chemical waste management and environmental safety, helping chemical companies understand and comply with new regulations from the federal Environmental Protection Agency. He was uniquely qualified in this role because of his experience as both a chemist and an executive, so he could speak the language of top management, chemical engineers, factory workers, and equipment operators.
Mr. Potash was very active in liberal politics throughout his life. He was Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the New England Chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union from approximately 1978 to 1981 and served on the Board until 1984. He became chairman of the Board when he was approached by some ACLU members who were concerned about severely dwindling membership of the organization due to the ACLU’ support of the right of a Nazi group to march in the heavily Jewish neighborhood of Skokie, IL. Mr. Potash listened to their reasoning and, after first declaring himself against supporting the right of the group to march, in the end agreed with the principle of supporting free speech no matter how heinous the speaker. He actively supported candidates for elective office including Stuart Hughes, Michael Harrington, John Tierney and Barney Frank in Massachusetts. He was engaged until the end; when he attended a reception to support the election of Elizabeth Warren he was honored as the oldest person there. He was deeply committed to the anti-Vietnam War movement. In particular he worked for the Business Executives Move for Vietnam Peace (BEM) which began in 1967 and disbanded after the war was over. BEM endorsed political candidates who supported ending the war reflecting its position that this particular war was immoral as well as negatively affecting the US business climate. He was also a staunch supporter of the civil rights movement. Politics was a family affair and the Potash children accompanied Max and Leola to demonstrations and marches including the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom in 1963 where Martin Luther King gave his now famous I Have a Dream speech. He was also an enthusiastic supporter over several decades of the Jewish Community Center of the North Shore from the time it was on Market Street in Lynn until the present.
Mr. Potash was passionately engaged in many interests in addition to his professional career and politics. He was a founding member of North Shore Tennis and Squash club in Salem MA which sponsored a women’s tennis tournament that brought a then young Billie Jean King to Salem and she was hosted in the Potash home. He loved nothing better than plunging into new endeavors in which he had absolutely no experience. It never occurred to him he could not achieve mastery.
In midlife he took up both sailing and skiing bringing the whole family on excursions out of Marblehead harbor or ski trips in New Hampshire. His interest in sailing grew as he participated in the informal Wednesday night races and went on overnight trips to Nantucket and Maine. In 1981 he helped sail his 31 foot Cheoy Lee ketch back over 600 miles of open ocean from Bermuda to Marblehead with his daughter and son-in-law. In later years he took up cross country skiing and snowshoeing. He loved to wander around the woods at the family’s cabin in Sandisfield, MA and mark trees to thin and then saw them down and chop into firewood. He baked bread, cooked gourmet Chinese food, and read voraciously, particularly about science, technology, politics and history. His personal definition of a “civilized society” is a place where one could get the Sunday New York Times on the day it was issued. He also was a great lover of American music: folk, blues, spirituals, and jazz, taking the young family to Sunday matinees at Lenny’s on the Turnpike, where they could listen in an intimate venue to such greats as Miles Davis, Cannonball Adderley, Phil Oches Knowledgeable in many areas, he enjoyed holding forth in any conversation and was not reticent about expressing strong opinions. Meeting new people was his delight.
He leaves behind 5 children: Naomi Ellen Potash and her husband Steve Mazur of Arlington, MA; Robert Ira Potash and his wife Sarah Lutz of Takoma Park, MD; Eliyahu Potash of Salt Lake City, Utah; Laura Lee Potash of Roslyn, WA; and Daniel Albert Potash and his wife Phoebe Low of South Pasadena, CA as well as five grandchildren: Sonia, Alex, Peter, Olivia and Jocelin. Funeral will be at Stanetsky-Hymanson Memorial Chapel, 10 Vinnin Street, Salem, on Tuesday, June 19 at 10 AM followed by graveside service. Shiva will be held at his late residence after the graveside service and on Wednesday and Thursday, June 20 and 21 from 3 to 8 PM.
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