William E. Potter; Former Panama Canal Zone Governor

ORLANDO, Fla. — William E. (Joe) Potter, a retired Army major general and former Panama Canal governor who helped build Walt Disney World, has died of heart failure at the age of 83.

He spent 38 years with the Army Corps of Engineers and was governor of the Panama Canal Zone from 1956 until he retired from the Army in 1960. He governed about 40,000 people in the zone.

Potter, who died Monday, directed logistical planning for the World War II invasion of Europe and later headed the Army’s “Red Ball Express” transportation operation on the continent.

He was known as “Mr. Disney” for his liaison work between the park and the community in the 1960s and 1970s.

“He was a man Walt Disney was very fond of,” said Dick Nunis, president of Walt Disney Attractions. “Without a Joe Potter there would be no Walt Disney World today.”

Disney met and hired Potter at the 1964 New York World’s Fair, where Potter was executive vice president.

Potter directed construction of the infrastructure for Disney World, including underground sewer, power and water treatment plants that were considered revolutionary at the time.

“I went out and got three crackerjack college professors to show me how to do it,” he told an interviewer last year. “And then I got me another professor to help put the utilities underground.”