The 1962 graduate of Northeast Catholic High School worked for the Haskins and Sells accounting firm in Center City before being drafted into the Army in March 1966. The private first class died during a search and destroy mission with Company A of the 1st Battalion, 14th Infantry, 3rd Brigade. 25th Infantry Division, in Vietnam near the Cambodian border on Nov. 13, 1966. He would have been 20 years old in two weeks. Potempa was survived by his parents and two brothers.