Philanthropy in Action:
Buzz Potts, MD
A "soft spot" for UVA inspired Buzz Potts, MD '74, and his wife, Hattit, to create the Potts Family Scholarship to provide need-based scholarships for medical students pursuing primary care or emergency medicine
Robert “Buzz” Potts, MD ’74, and his wife, Harriet “Hattit” Potts, have a self-described “soft spot” for the University of Virginia. After all, it’s where they met. In 1970, Hattit entered UVA as a third-year student in the School of Education. Buzz was a first-year medical student at the time. They married in 1971. Hattit earned a BS in Education in 1972, and Buzz graduated from the UVA School of Medicine in 1974.
Both are originally from Pennsylvania – Buzz from outside Philadelphia and Hattit near Pittsburgh. After their time at UVA, they returned to Pennsylvania, and Buzz did his family medicine residency at Hershey Medical Center.
“I started practicing in a small New Hampshire mountain town, delivering babies, making house calls, and helping cover the ER. Emergency medicine was a new specialty in the 1980s. It also afforded a more livable schedule and life. You could grandfather in with experience, provided you passed the written and oral exams. I did that and practiced in Princeton, New Jersey, for 10 years before coming out to Colorado in 1996, where I practiced at the Vail Valley Medical Center. In the winter, I ran the Keystone Ski Resort clinic. I retired in 2018,” he says.
Hattit began her career teaching the 6th grade at a school in Charlottesville. While Buzz practiced emergency medicine, she continued as a middle school teacher and raised their three children. She also worked part-time as an exercise and fitness instructor, a job she continues today. Not surprisingly, trips back to Charlottesville were infrequent, but the couple did make it back for the Class of 1974’s 25th Reunion. They returned in April 2024 for the Class of 1974’s 50th Reunion and its induction into the UVA Medical Alumni Association’s 1819 Alumni Society.
Spurred on by the tireless efforts of Class Representative Claudette Dalton, MD ‘74, and major gifts by several of his classmates, the 50th Reunion turned out to be the catalyst for a significant gift from Buzz and Hattit to the UVA School of Medicine. “We had previously supported the Class of 1974 Scholarship Fund and decided to also make a special 50th Reunion gift,” Buzz says. “We know that the UVA Medical School is an outstanding one. Our high schools and my undergraduate school don’t need the money as much as an aspiring medical student.”
The Potts Family Scholarship was established in May 2024.The fund will provide need-based scholarships at the UVA School of Medicine, with a preference for students expressing an interest in or matching into primary care or emergency medicine.
Buzz says the opportunity to give came at the right time for the couple from a financial perspective, and it meets a need they feel passionate about. “My experiences in a small town in New England, and then in a rural resort town in the Rocky Mountains, are with family practice and emergency medicine. You get to take care of and see everybody regardless of their economic status. It is a very rewarding aspect about medicine – an opportunity to help those less fortunate,” he explains. “As a patient, your early exposures to medicine and physicians are very important, regardless of the level of your illness. That’s why we wanted to create a scholarship in a primary care specialty and/or emergency medicine.”
The multi-year gift from Buzz and Hattit continues a legacy of giving in their families, a legacy they hope will continue. “I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention that both of our fathers were very generous to their respective schools and universities. I guess you’d call it a family trait,” Buzz says. “It’s also a good example for our children and grandchildren.”
Buzz feels very fortunate that his father was able to pay his medical school tuition at UVA, something he realizes is not possible for many families today. He hopes the scholarship will help current students, as well as inspire fellow and future alumni to give. “In discussing the possibility of a scholarship fund, I learned that tuition is over $50,000 a year and that does not cover everything. Comparing it to the $3,000-$4,000 tuition back in ‘70 to ’74, I think the gift could make a bigger financial difference to today’s medical students than it might have many years ago. We also like to think that if one has received a scholarship, they will be more likely to fund a scholarship, should the circumstances arise, in the future.”
