NEWS

Kenan professor emeritus E. Maynard Adams dies

CHAPEL HILL – Dr. E. Maynard Adams of Chapel Hill, Kenan professor emeritus of philosophy and a longtime faculty leader at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, died Monday (Nov. 17). He was 83.

Adams was chair of the faculty from 1976-79 and of the philosophy department from 1960 to 1965. He was a leader in establishment of UNC’s program in the humanities and human values as well as the curriculum in peace, war and defense.

"Maynard Adams was an intellectual giant, but also a gentle and caring human being," said UNC Chancellor emeritus Ferebee Taylor of Chapel Hill, who was chancellor when Adams was faculty chair. "He was a forceful and steadfast spokesman for the humanities and a loyal and devoted servant of the university at Chapel Hill. He will be sorely missed by all of us who had the privilege of knowing this great man."

Adams, who taught at UNC from 1948 until he retired in 1990, won the Outstanding Educator of America Award (from the Outstanding Educators of America organization) and the university’s Thomas Jefferson Award in 1971.

The UNC chancellor presents the Jefferson Award annually, on the recommendation of a faculty committee, to the member of the academic community who through personal influence and performance of duty in teaching, writing and scholarship has best exemplified the ideals and objectives of Thomas Jefferson.

An annual lecture in the humanities and an endowed professorship at UNC are named in Adams’ honor.

"Maynard Adams was much admired and much loved both by his students and his colleagues," said Dr. Warren Nord, director of the program in the humanities and human values. "He was passionately committed to philosophy, to the humanities, to liberal education and to the university. Indeed, he believed that through reforming the life of the mind, we could reform society in a way that made it truly fit for human beings. He was a great man, a giant in the history of the university."

Adams wrote, co-wrote or edited 12 books and more than 100 scholarly articles and reviews. His books included "Philosophy and the Modern Mind: A Philosophical Critique of Modern Western Civilization" (UNC Press, 1975) and "The Idea of America" (Ballinger Publishing, 1977). Adams hosted a series of discussions based on the latter book on North Carolina’s public television network, now UNC-TV.

He was on Gov. James B. Hunt’s Task Force on Science and Technology and chaired a committee for Hunt on science, technology and human values. Adams was president of the N.C. Philosophical Society, the Southern Society for Philosophy and Psychology and chair of the program committee and a member of the executive council of the American Philosophical Association.

Adams was active in local schools and chaired the boards of Chapel Hill Community Action Inc. and the Joint Orange-Chatham Community Action Inc. He was vice chairman of the board of the Orange Economic Opportunity Commission Inc.

He was an honorary member of the Golden Fleece Honor Society and the Dialectic Literary Society at UNC. He served UNC on numerous boards and committees including those of the College of Arts and Sciences, the Graduate School, the division of student affairs and the Chancellor’s Search Committee in 1979, whose work led to the appointment of Chancellor Emeritus Christopher Fordham.

Adams, a native of Clarkton, Va., grew up on a tobacco farm and attended a one-room school. He earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees from the University of Richmond in 1941 and 1944; a divinity degree in 1944 from Colgate-Rochester Divinity School; and a second master’s degree and a doctorate from Harvard University in 1947 and 1948.

He is survived by his wife of almost 61 years, Phyllis Stevenson Adams of Chapel Hill, and his daughter, Jill Elaine Adams, son-in-law Thomas Alexander and their children, Adam and Nathan Alexander, all of Carbondale, Ill. He was pre-deceased earlier this year by his son, Steven Maynard Adams.

"He lived a long and fruitful life and maintained an amazing spirit through it all," Phyllis Adams said. "He told his professor at Harvard, when he got his Ph.D., that he would like to work at a good Southern university, and his hope was certainly realized here. He couldn’t have been in a better place. This was his dream."

A memorial service will be at 3 p.m. Sunday (Nov. 23) at Binkley Baptist Church, 1712 Willow Drive, Chapel Hill. In lieu of flowers, the family requests donations to Binkley Baptist Church; The UNC Program in the Humanities and Human Values, CB 3425, Chapel Hill, 27599; or the UNC Hospice, P.O. Box 1077, Pittsboro, N.C. 27312

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News Services contact: L.J. Toler, (919) 962-8589, laura_toler@unc.edu