Neal Potter Plaza

Neal Potter Plaza. at the Capital Crescent Trail. , Neal Potter , Neal Potter was a model public citizen, an economist, and a lifelong advocate for world peace, human rights, and responsible government. As a Montgomery County citizen and Councilmember and Montgomery County Executive, he provide leadership in tax policy, land-use planning, and transportation. As a long-time advocate for peace and human rights, he led student strikes against war and fascism at Johns Hopkins University and the University of Minnesota. He was present at the meeting that launched the World Federalist Association and was a life member of the NAACP., Neal Potter was born on March 22, 1915, in Arlington, Virginia and raised on a farm in Cabin John, Maryland. A graduate of Bethesda-Chevy Chase High School, Potter attended Johns Hopkins University and received his B.A. degree in economics and political science in 1937 and his M.A. degree in economics in 1940 from the University of Minnesota. After graduate work in economics at the University of Chicago, he served as an economist at the Office of Price Administration from 1941 to 1946. He taught economics at Carnegie Tech (now Carnegie-Mellon) in 1946-1947 and at Washington State College from 1947 to 1951. Potter served as Western Field Director for the World Federalists from 1952 to 1954 before taking a research position with Resources for the Future where he worked from 1955 to 1974., Active in civic life, Neal Potter was one of the architects of the modern Montgomery County. In 1960, he was the principal organizer of the Citizens Committee for Fair Taxation. He served as president of the Montgomery County Citizens Planning Association from 1965 to 1967 and as editor in 1968 and 1969. He was a co-chairman of the Metropolitan Washington Coalition for Clean Air in 1969 and 1970., Neal Potter's commitment to building a better world took him far beyond the boundaries of Montgomery County. Present at the founding of the World Federalists in 1947, Potter served as vice president and board member of United World Federalists and as a board member of the United Nations Association., His memberships included Americans for Democratic Action, Anti-Defamation League of B'nai B'rith, Audubon Society, Common Cause, NAACP, and National Committee for a Sane Nuclear Policy (SANE). He was a member of the Chevy Chase United Methodist Church. Neal Potter was elected to the Montgomery County Council in 1970 and re-elected in 1974, 1978, 1982, and 1986, serving three times as Council President. He was elected as Montgomery County's fourth County Executive in 1990 and elected to serve a sixth term in the County Council in 1994. In his twenty-eight years of service to the residents of Montgomery County as an elected official. Potter played a leading role in issues that ranged from sound land use planning to assessment reform and from fair taxation to sewage management. As a Councilmember, he sponsored bills to establish the Office of Public Advocate for Assessments and Taxation and the Montgomery County Conservation Corps. He authored Council-proposed State legislation on taxation, farmland preservation, and farmland assessment., Potter served as President of the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments (COG) and chaired committees for both the National Association of Counties an Maryland Association of Counties. In 1987, he received the Elizabeth and David Scull Metropolitan Public Service Award of the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments. Other honors he received include National Association of Counties' Distinguished Service Award, Maryland Governor's Citation, Sentinel Newspaper's Citizen of the Year, Montgomery County Civic Federation's Citation for Distinguished Public Service, and Audubon Naturalist Society's Legislator of the Year Award., Neal Potter died on May 27, 2008. In 2009, County Executive Ike Leggett named Montgomery County's Path of Achievement Award , honoring County residents 60 years old or better whose accomplishments, enthusiasm, and lifelong commitment to volunteer service made them outstanding role models for those of all ages , after Neal Potter to honor the memory of his extraordinary lifetime of achievement. In making the announcement, County Executive Leggett explained: "Neal was a mentor and friend. He was a model public servant who always exhibited the highest personal integrity., David Burwell ,

"My dream is that one day you could go across this entire country … on flat, wide, off-road paths. I want rail-trails to be America's Main Street." , – David Burwell

, David Burwell was a rail-trail visionary. His innovation, ingenuity and leadership breathed life into the concept of the rail-trail, embedding these pathways in the American cultural landscape., The co-founder of Rails-to-Trails Conservancy (RTC), David saw an opportunity in the early 1980s as struggling railroads were abandoning 4,000 to 8,000 miles of rail line each year, and a national treasure was being lost. In response, he gathered walking, hiking and cycling enthusiasts; railroad history buffs; representatives from environmental, conservation and parks groups, and alternative transportation advocates to mobilize efforts to preserve rail corridors for trail use–and the rail-trail movement was born., A lawyer by training, David's knowledge of the laws that helped create rail-trails was key to the movement's success. His expertise helped convince Congress that the preservation of railroad corridors as trails fulfilled a transportation purpose, laying the groundwork for the federal legislation that protects and supports trail networks across the country., David is celebrated for playing a pivotal role in the passing of landmark federal laws that have, to date, provided hundreds of millions of dollars for rail-trails; for establishing RTC's legal program, now the country's foremost defender of rail-trails in the U.S. courts; and for helping to make RTC the leading voice for trails in the country. David and his colleagues at RTC were central figures in the advocacy and organizing that brought the Capital Crescent Trail from concept to reality., When it seemed that political will was waning in efforts to close important gaps in the trail, David gathered a team of RTC staff to "deck the bridge" over Canal Road at Arizona Avenue in demonstration of the potential the trail could deliver. When legal barriers threatened to prevent railbanking of the corridor in D.C., David contributed his expertise and political savvy in the effort to secure the Georgetown-to-Maryland right-of-way for the trail., David's dream was the Great American Rail-Trail–an off-road, multiuse path that would connect the nation. As rail-rails were quickly taking the place of railroad corridors in the 1980s and 1990s, RTC tracked that progress on a large wall map. David watched as the pins marking rail-trails began to form a route across the country as the railroad once did. David challenged RTC to see his vision through of a coast-to-coast trail, a challenge that the organization is carrying forward with a commitment to complete the nearly 4,000-mile route from Washington, D.C., to Washington state., Bold ideas were David's hallmark. He turned "rails-to-trails" from an idea with very good potential into a powerful national force backed by firm legal standing, true political muscle and undeniable financial backing. Through vision, hard work and perseverance. David created an organization–and a movement–that transformed the American landscape. His legacy lives on as millions of Americans every year enjoy tens of thousands of miles of rail-trails., David Burwell was a long-time resident of Bethesda, Maryland, and served as RTC's president from its founding in 1986 until 2001. On Feb. 1, 2017, he passed away after a hard-fought battle with leukemia., Lee Wick Dennison , Chevy Chase resident Lee Wick Dennison was an accomplished musician with degrees from Interlochen Arts Academy, Lake Eric College and Oxford University. She also received an M.S. in accounting from Georgetown University and was a CPA with a long career at the National Endowment for the Arts. She held increasingly important positions there, administering federal programs and twice won the NEA Distinguished Service Award., In retirement, she was involved in many social causes. She was an avid walker, taking walking tours to exotic places, and she twice participated in the 60 mile Avon Walk for Breast Cancer. Her love of walking on the trail led her to leave a significant bequest to The Coalition for the Capital Crescent Trail (CCCT) to be used specifically to be used "specifically to support the improvement and maintenance of the Capital Crescent Trail." Her generous gift enabled the CCCT to initiate the plan to construct this plaza.