Christopher H. Adams, Jr. ’46 died on January 21, 2010, in Lansdale, Pennsylvania.
(The following was provided by The Phoenix on January 30, 2010)
Christopher (“Kit”) Hussey Adams, Jr.—formerly of Strafford, Pa—passed away peacefully on Jan. 21 at the Gwynedd Square Center in Lansdale, Pa.
He was born in 1924 in Geneva, Illinois, to Christopher Hussey Adams, Sr., and Susan Billow Adams. He graduated from Kings School in Stamford, Conn., in 1942, and Bowdoin College in 1947. During World War II he served in the Navy, ultimately as ensign, and spent fourteen months as line officer on a landing ship medium in the Asiatic-Pacific Theater.
Shortly after the war, he moved to New York City. He soon met Jean Marian Lausmann, a Portland, Oregon, native, who was working at the United Nations. In 1952, after Jean returned from a UN session in Paris, the two married. They later had three sons.
While in New York, Kit began a lifelong career in the housing-related industries. In the 1950s, he worked at American Houses, Inc., in Allentown. He then spent two decades at CertainTeed Corporation in Valley Forge, ultimately as marketing consultant. He later worked for Bickford Development Corporation in Houston.
Kit and Jean moved to Hancock, NH in 1990. They were active in town affairs and generous hosts to many visitors. After Jean’s death in 1999, Kit moved to Chester Springs, where he lived with his oldest son and family for 3.5 years until needing specialized care.
Kit loved classical music and literature, and served for three years as president of Friends of the Library at the Tredyffrin Public Library in Strafford.
He will be remembered for his kindness and creativity. Inspired by The New Yorker magazine — especially its humor and “Talk of the Town”—he wrote satirical opinion pieces, articles, and reviews for family and friends. He once wrote an owners manual for a “MLOCK” (an imaginary clock he conceived of that would tell metric time). He wrote radio plays for his sons and witty and thoughtful letters. He built miniature furniture, restored an antique grandfather’s clock, and inspired in his sons a love of music, books, woodworking, storytelling and the great outdoors.
He is survived by son Christopher and wife Karen; son Peter and wife Robbin; son Daniel; grandchildren Kimberly, Lauren, and Benjamin; niece Lynn (Ellis) Gustafson, nephew Randy Powers, and their families; and the family of a second nephew, the late Richard Ellis.