Daniel Powell Poteet II

Daniel Powell Poteet II died on February 3, 2026, at the age of 85. After many happy retirement years in Bar Harbor, he and Nancy – his wife of 55 years – made their home at The Cedars in Portland, Maine, where he was welcomed and lovingly cared for by the community and staff. Dan’s connection to Mt. Desert Island began in 1963 when he taught sailing at the Bar Harbor Yacht Club. From then on, he spent at least part of every summer on MDI through 2023.

Born in 1940 to Colonel Daniel Powell Poteet and Helene Vanderveer, Dan grew up in Little Silver, New Jersey, where – aside from family - the important constants of his life began: lifelong close friendships; a love of sailing and the water; springer spaniels (there was one at his birth and a nearly unbroken succession from 1967 to 2013); an addiction to The New York Times inaugurated by his fourth grade teacher (he claimed he was “constitutionally, physiologically unable NOT to read the Times, no matter what.”)

From Little Silver he went to Mt. Hermon School in Massachusetts where he was editor of the student newspaper his senior year. After undergraduate study at Harvard, he went to Illinois for a PhD in medieval English literature. While in Champaign, he crossed paths with fellow grad student Nancy Heusinkveld. They dated for several years but parted as friends when Dan left Champaign. Absence led to clarity, however: a missive was sent, a springer spaniel’s ears were cleaned (an oft-overlooked tactic for suitors), and they were soon married in 1971.

In 1977, after a few years as an English professor, Dan pivoted to administration. Once again he deployed his epistolary talents, pitching himself as Assistant to the President in a letter to Josiah Bunting, the newly appointed President of Hampden-Sydney College in Virginia. He was hired immediately and a few days after moving to Virginia, son Daniel was born and Dan began his career in academic administration.

During Dan’s first year, an unexpected vacancy led to his being appointed Acting Dean of the Faculty. Not long after that, a budget crisis called on him to deploy qualities and abilities that earned him the permanent position. A few years later, he was made the first Provost of Hampden-Sydney.

From Hampden-Sydney, he went on to Albion College in Michigan, Guilford College in North Carolina and The School of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston. At each school he served with the title of Provost, which meant anything from chief academic officer to chief operating officer, to lead planner and budgeter, to chief fund raiser, and usually more than one of these things – all tasks that indirectly support what teachers and students do.

In 1998, Dan retired (briefly) from academia so that he and Nancy could move full time to Bar Harbor. There, he indulged his love of journalism by becoming the Bar Harbor correspondent for The Ellsworth American and relished the weekly debriefing sessions at the paper attended by Russell Wiggins. Not long into his retirement, a search consultant recruited him to serve an interim position at the Museum School in Boston. The plan was to serve for six months to a year while the school searched for a permanent Dean of the Faculty. At the end of the search, however, Dan was offered the permanent position and spent the next twelve years at the Museum school, ultimately becoming Provost and Director of Development.

In 2010 when he finally retired full time to Bar Harbor, he was recruited to serve on various boards and committees: Maine College of Art, Bar Harbor Warrant Committee, Mt. Desert Island Historical Society, Acadia Senior College, Schoodic Institute, College of the Atlantic, Abbe Museum, and Jesup Memorial Library. Retirement from paid employment freed Nancy and Dan to make extended visits to Tucson, Arizona and Boulder, Utah, parts of the Southwest where they had friends and family and had come to love.

Dan will be remembered for his kindness, generosity, humility, quiet brilliance and wry wit that was occasionally sardonic but never mean. He was an admired and beloved colleague, a loyal friend, and a devoted husband and father. He relished becoming a grandfather, and he was an affectionate and proud follower of his family’s life developments, with sage advice, but only when solicited.

He leaves a loving family including his wife Nancy of Portland; son Daniel and wife Allison Kupfer Poteet, granddaughter Sylvie Anne, and granddog Jackie, all of South Portland: nephews David and John Heusinkveld and their families; cousins William, Jill, Anne and Kate Ashbey and their families. A celebration of life in Bar Harbor will be held on July 13 at The Jesup Memorial Library.

Dan felt tremendous gratitude for his experience at Mt. Hermon School and volunteered for decades. Memorial gifts to Northfield Mt. Hermon School (https://bit.ly/407tSIR) or The Jesup Memorial Library are deeply appreciated.