Dr. Nicholas Henry Pott
Dr. Nicholas Henry Pott passed away Thursday, July 16, 2026, at the age of 89. His final days were shared with his sons, grandchildren, and lifelong friends.
Born in London, England, on May 25, 1937, Nick lived the majority of his adult life in the United States, in New York City, and on the North Fork of Long Island, in Southold and Greenport.
His life experiences were wide-ranging and deeply felt: through his medical practice as a psychiatrist; through deep ties with a large family and with many friendships spread across the US, England, Canada and Europe; and on account of his thoughtful and inviting personality which disarmed and befriended people wherever he went. Nick travelled widely and had many adventures throughout his life, motivated by a passion for wilderness expeditions, sports, the arts, history, and experiences shared with those he loved.
Nick attended grade school at St. George’s School (Harpenden, England) and boarding school at Bryanston School (Dorset); he studied medicine at Trinity College, Cambridge University, and was a resident at St. Bartholomew’s Hospital, London. As a child, he travelled with his mother Janet Pott, sister Elizabeth Staley (nee Pott), and cousin, to stay with relatives in New York during World War II to escape German bombing raids on London; his father, Anthony Pott, chief architect of the Ministry of Education and later awarded Order of the British Empire (OBE), remained in London. From 1956 to 1958, Nick served in the Royal Marines and was stationed in Cyprus.
Nick returned to the United States in 1966 and was a Psychiatry Resident at Bellevue Hospital, in New York City. There, over heated ping pong matches, he met Judith (Jay) Goodwin Pott, whom he married in June, 1969. Nick and Jay had two sons, Roland Sage Pott (born 1972), and Samuel Martin Pott (born 1976). They resided on the upper west side of Manhattan, first on Riverside Drive and then on Central Park West. During that period Nick led a busy life of work at Bellevue, maintaining lifelong friendships, rock climbing (particularly in the Shawangunks with the “Vulgarians”), playing tennis, and running (he was a competitive marathon runner in Boston and NYC, completing the NYC marathon with a gun time of 2:45 in 1977, at age 40).
Remote wilderness expeditions, rock climbing, mountaineering, and sports were lifelong passions for Nick.In 1959 he joined cousin Michael Wortis and the Harvard Mountaineering Club to summit five 9000’+ peaks in British Columbia’s Purcell Range. In the early 1960s, he made three trips to the French and Swiss alps with the Cambridge Mountaineering Club summiting 19 peaks of 8100’-13,700’. He was the Expedition Medic for the Cambridge Mountaineering Club’s East Greenland expedition to the Stauning Alps, summiting and naming 28 peaks that had never before been climbed.
Many other expeditions included kayaking to Queen Charlotte Islands, British Columbia, canoeing in Algonquin Provincial Park, backcountry hiking in the Grand Tetons, Wyoming, and the Beartooth Mountains, Montana; and sailing cruises throughout Long Island, Rhode Island, Cape Cod, and Maine. Nicholas competed in the Modern Pentathlon (running, shooting, riding, swimming, and fencing) and came 11th overall in the British Interservices Championships in 1960.
In 1986 Nick moved to Southold, after his divorce, where he lived at Bayside Farm with relatives Ethel Emerson Wortis and Ruth Emerson Cooke. He set up a private practice in psychiatry and was a psychiatrist at Eastern Long Island Hospital in Greenport. He retired in 2004. Successive, close relationships with Betty Bonora and Elin Youngberg were an important part of his life during these decades. A stroke sustained in 2007 impacted his ability to speak; shortly after, he moved to the Meadowlakes Retirement Community in Hightstown, N.J.
Nevertheless, Nick managed to continue an active lifestyle travelling to Europe, Maine, often to New York City and other locations with his companion and travelling partner Mary Cox Golden. He continued to cycle on a near daily basis until he was 87!
Dr. Pott was born into a family of distinguished academics, medical practitioners, and architects on both his British and American sides: ancestors include Percivall Pott, a famous 18th century surgeon known as a founder of Orthopedics and Occupational Medicine; Lucretia Mott, 19th century abolitionist and women’s rights advocate; Daniel D. Tompkins, a US vice president and governor of New York State; Haven Emerson, Health Commissioner of New York City; and great-great granduncle Ralph Waldo Emerson, philosopher and founder of Transcendentalism. Nick’s life was lived with the legacy of these luminous figures whose scientific, societal, and intellectual contributions influenced his own focuses on service, medicine, nature, and family.
Nicholas will be remembered for his incredible generosity of spirit, his charisma, humility, sense of adventure, and ever-present love for his family, friends, patients, life partners, and the countless people who were touched by him. He is survived by his sons Roland Pott and Sam Pott; grandchildren Baker, Sadie and Sofia; nephew Ralph Staley, nieces Eleanor Pritchard and Joanna Hammond; grandniece Isabelle; and grandnephew Freddie.
A memorial service in celebration of Nicholas Pott’s life will be held Saturday, Oct. 17, at 11 a.m. at the Trenton Friends Meeting House, 142 E Hanover St, Trenton, N.J. 08608. Service will be followed by a lunch gathering at the same location. Guests are invited to share a memory, story, or reflection about Nick.
Horton Mathie Funeral Home in Greenport assisted the family. Donations in lieu of flowers can be made to Sierra Club or Doctors Without Borders.
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