Cleric, educator.
Born at Winnipeg on 18 March 1916, son of Polish immigrants Alexander Potoroka (1883-1959) and Magdalina “Magda” Shuster (1889-1973), he became a Baptist minister and held pastorates at Droxford (Saskatchewan), Weyburn (Saskatchewan), Manitou, Darlingford, and Barkley. He moved to Winnipeg in 1955.
He was the Executive Director of the Manitoba Branch of the Alcohol Drug Education Service (ADES) for over twenty years. He founded the ADES Educational Library as an extension of his own personal library. The library serves as an educational tool for students and teachers across Manitoba. By mail it reached not only Winnipeg and The Pas, but also Lynn Lake and other more remote areas of northern Manitoba. In 1976 the facility was renamed the William Potoroka Memorial Library.
On 18 October 1948, he married schoolteacher Verna Margorie Peters (1920-2004) and they subsequently had a daughter.
He died at the Health Sciences Centre on 4 December 1975.
Birth registration [William Potoroka], Manitoba Vital Statistics.
1931 Canada census, Ancestry.
Library Pivot Point of Program, ADE Vol. 1, No. 1, February 1978.
Obituary [Verna Margorie Potoroka], Winnipeg Free Press, 31 January 2004.
Obituaries and burial transcriptions, Manitoba Genealogical Society.
We thank Alice-Marie Dyck for providing additional information used here.
This page was prepared by Angela Graham and Gordon Goldsborough.
Page revised: 12 January 2026
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