Jacobus Louw Potter was born on 21 November 1924 in Cardenden, Fife. His birth was announced in the Births column of the Scotsman on the same day - Saturday 22 November 1924 - as that of his future wife Elizabeth Ross. He was the son of a miner who became a church minister. Potter was educated at Beath High School, and he studied at Edinburgh University graduating in 1948 with the degrees of M.B., Ch.B. He married Elizabeth Ross, also an Edinburgh graduate, at Lower Largo, Fife, on 26 March 1949.

Elizabeth Mackay Ross was born three days earlier than her future husband on 18 November 1924 in St. Andrews, Fife. Her family lived in Lower Largo, and she attended Waid Academy, Anstruther, and Edinburgh Ladies College, the latter between October 1939 and 1943. After school she entered Edinburgh University, graduating in 1949 with the degrees of M.B., Ch.B.

One of the first posts that Jacobus Louw Potter held was that of resident surgeon in the rheumatic diseases unit of the Northern General Hospital, Edinburgh, but in 1952 he joined the medical branch of the Royal Air Force becoming a squadron leader in charge of the medical division, RAF Hospital, Padgate, in Cheshire. In 1954 he returned to Edinburgh as a research fellow at the Northern General, though he went to the USA to research at the New York University School of Medicine's pathology department.

In 1962, Potter returned to the USA, to White Plains, New York, and spent the next 20-years in the country. He had varied roles including: work with the Health Research Council of the City of New York; Associate Professor and Associate Dean of the New York University School of Medicine, 1958-1980; physician/consultant for the New York Veteran's Administration Hospital; and, consultant at New York Infirmary. He also served on various bodies and committees, and he was elected as a Fellow of the American College of Physicians. He also was a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh.

Meanwhile, his wife after graduation - until 1963 - held posts at the Royal Hospital for Sick Children, the Northern General Hospital, and Bruntsfield Hospital in Edinburgh, all in Edinburgh, and at Bangour Hospital outside the city. Joining her husband in the USA she worked at the New York University School of Medicine, the New York University Medical Center, New York Infirmary, and St. Clare's Hospital Center.

Elizabeth Mackay Potter predeceased her husband on 26 July 1979.

In 1981 Potter was back in Scotland where he took up the post of Executive Dean of the Faculty of Medicine, Edinburgh University.

Jacobus Louw Potter died on 9 May 2015 in Edinburgh. His second wife, Catherine Matthews, or Rena, had predeceased him a little earlier in 2015.