John Phillip Adams

John Phillips Adams passed away on November 28, 2023, in Austin, Texas, from heart failure at the ripe old age of 92. He was born on May 27, 1931 in Nashville, Tennessee, the third child of Karin Hughes Adams and Alfred Thompson Adams, Sr. He walked uphill both ways to attend The Montgomery Bell Academy through high school and earned his Engineering Degree from Vanderbilt, majoring in Phi Delta Theta, and graduating in 1955. Fraternity pranks included digging a ditch across West End Avenue and blocking cars with pilfered utility barricades, snarling traffic for two days. He had a brief but important stint in the U.S. Air Force during the Korean conflict, serving as a quartermaster. His most important mission was to find alcohol for cleaning the pilots’ masks. Always the problem solver, he managed to procure ethyl alcohol (Everclear) which he traded for jeep privileges, special cafeteria access, and cash which he then used to purchase dozens of small bottles of rubbing alcohol at local drug stores. His professional career began in Cincinnati with GE, where he met Carol Post (from Crawford, West Virginia), who tried to run over him the second time she saw him, but it was probably his fault. They were married in Cincinnati on June 21, 1958, the longest day of the year, as he would remind us annually. His work life immediately took them to Nashville where Carolyn Howell was born in 1959 and John “Phillips”, Jr. was born in 1961. In 1963 they moved to Oak Ridge, Tennessee where Jill Bunten was born in 1967. By now, his career had morphed into Project Management, which meant moving to wherever the next project was: Pascagoula, MS; Mobile, AL; many years with S&B Construction in Houston, TX; Boca Raton, FL; Round Rock, TX; Chattanooga, TN; and finally retirement in Galveston, TX; and Katy, TX. Life involved a lot of enriching adjustments and cardboard boxes, but he was never maudlin or unproductive. All these places fade compared to the time and love experienced in Beersheba Springs, Tennessee. Thirty years ago, John and Carol built their cabin on Backbone Road. Every summer would be a bit more work on the cabin, gratefully interrupted by visits with cousins and long evenings with a gin and tonic on the back porch. The sunset was a “come now!” event every time. Grandchildren and grand nieces and nephews ran thru the woods catching toads, shooting bottle rockets, and picking blackberries. John could make just about anything and would always measure twice, cut once. He taught all three of his children how to use a chisel, sand with the grain, clean the paint brushes, and never throw away anything with a possible reuse. (If you need something, just ask.) He was a devoted advocate for his wife, Carol, as they aged. His was a life centered on family and never absent of faith. Two weeks before he died, he asked to be taken to church, not an easy task in frail condition, but important in ways we may never understand. John is proceeded in death by his parents, Alfred and Karin Adams; his sister Karin Adams Stewart, his brothers Alfred Thompson Adams, Jr., and Benjamin Strickler Adams. He is survived by his wife of 65 years, Carol Post Adams; his children Carolyn Adams Long (Jack); J. Phillips Adams, Jr. (Kira Burnett); Jill Bunten Adams; grandchildren Adam Jackson Long and Carlen Elizabeth Long; sisters, Rosalie Adams Crispin, Mary Adams (Andy Wiley), and cousins too numerous to count. He was much loved and appreciated for his sly sense of humor, creative idiomatic expressions, storytelling, and great love of family. Memorial gifts can be sent to the Beersheba Clinic, P.O. Box 112, Beersheba Springs, TN 37305; or thru https://beershebaclinic.org/donate/. A celebration of his life will be at Beersheba sometime next summer in Austin, Texas.

John Phillip Adams

May 27, 1931 - November 28, 2023