Co-founder of D.C. LGBTQ Adventuring group Warren Potas dies at 73
Warren Potas, a D.C. area-based computer engineer who designed mainframe computer software for some of the nation’s leading tech companies, including IBM and Unisys, and the co-founder in 1979 of D.C.’s then gay and lesbian wilderness and outdoor group called Adventuring died on Sept.
5. He was 73. The cause of death was not disclosed by the Budd Funeral Home of Woodbury, N.J., which organized funeral arrangements and released a detailed write-up on Potas’s life that it says Potas himself prepared.
Potas, who was retired at the time of his passing, had divided his time in recent years between D.C. and his hometown of Wenonah, N.J., which is close to Philadelphia, according to Jennifer Budd, the funeral home’s director. “Warren regarded wilderness/outdoors as the touchstone of his spirit,” the write-up released by the funeral home says. “Additionally, he enjoyed interacting with people, savoring insights that come from the melding of experience, intuition and reasoning, celebrating the joys of the senses, and appreciating and learning from the world of nature,” the write-up says.
It says Potas, who referred to himself as Adventure Man, received his Bachelor of Science and Master of Science degrees with a major in computer science and minor in economics magna cum laude from Brown University in Providence, R.I.
