When Arthur Carl Potthoff was born on 23 June 1899, in Woodbury, Washington, Minnesota, United States, his father, Heinrich Wilhelm Potthoff, was 38 and his mother, Anne Marie Louise Brunshaus, was 32. He married Marian Flora Bothe on 6 April 1940, in Washington, Minnesota, United States. He lived in Washington, Minnesota, United States in 1899. He died on 14 August 1971, in Saint Paul, Ramsey, Minnesota, United States, at the age of 72, and was buried in Woodbury Methodist Cemetery, Woodbury, Washington, Minnesota, United States.