John Poteat

Born in Bakersville, North Carolina, and reared in Jonesborough, his life has been filled with an entrepreneurial spirit. As a teenager, Poteat began his own milk delivery service rather than sell milk from the family dairy cows. After completing three years of work in just two years at what was then State Teachers College, Johnson City, he left with high hopes and a new microscope for medical school in Memphis. The Great Depression intervened, and when he no longer had money for food, Poteat was forced to leave Memphis to look for employment.

While working for Pet Dairy during the day, he developed his own ice cream business, freezing gallons of his products at night to sell as double-dip cones in Spruce Pine, North Carolina.

Subsequent employment at Peters Oil gave him experience in sales and promotion at area gas stations. Poteat put that knowledge to work, obtaining a Pure Oil franchise in Kingsport and operating such a successful station that the company used it as a model and flew him to company headquarters to learn his techniques.

Poteat’s next enterprise began in 1974, as the result of a conversation with W.B. Greene, Sr. The men raised $200,000 to start the Bank of Tennessee. By the end of the year 2000, the bank had $383 million in assets.

As he approaches his 90 th birthday at the end of this year, Poteat still keeps a watchful eye on the bank, as well as on the construction of residential subdivisions being developed on his properties.

Poteat is a fervent advocate for ETSU. He supports the ETSU Foundation, giving at the Gold Society Level, and is a member of the ETSU Legacy Circle. He has created the Poteat Endowment for creation of the ETSU Chair of Banking.