Hubert Winston Adams, 87: Father of UGA president

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By Michelle E. Shaw

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Hubert W. Adams had big post-Army plans. After serving in World War II he was going to get married, go to college and eventually start a family.

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Special Hubert W. Adams spent 35 years working for the Kraft Foods Co.

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But the family came a bit faster than expected, and Mr. Adams put his educational pursuits on hold and went to work, so he could provide for his wife and child.

“They thought they’d go to college after World War II on the G.I. Bill,” said Dr. Michael F. Adams, president of the University of Georgia and the oldest of the Adams’ children. “He came home, married my mother and I showed up 10 months later, and that pretty well solved that.”

Hubert and Jean Adams welcomed their daughter, Marsha Adams, into the world 21 months later and the next year, in 1951, Mr. Adams moved his young family to Atlanta, where he began a 35-year career with the Kraft Foods Co.

All told, the family moved nearly a dozen times as Mr. Adams worked his way through the ranks of retail sales for the food company, family members said.

“Every move we ever made, my parents asked where were the best schools,” Dr. Adams said. “They invested great portions of their lives in the education of both my sister and me.”

The Adamses also made sacrifices, including letting Dr. Adams stay in Chattanooga with friends, the Barkers, so he could finish his last year of high school.

“Hubert was the one in the family who was more quiet, but at the same time he was very supportive of his children’s education,” said Dr. Mary Barker, of Chattanooga. “I think, as the years went by, the children realized how well they’d done because of the atmosphere their father provided.”

Hubert Winston Adams, of Stone Mountain, died Sunday at home. He was 87. A funeral is planned for 11 a.m. Thursday at Tom M. Wages Funeral Service, Snellville, which is also in charge of arrangements.

Mr. Adams joked with friends that he got his college education alongside his children and grandchildren.

“He told everybody he knew that, counting his grandchildren, there were eight UGA degrees in his immediate family,” Dr. Adams said with a laugh. “And he felt like he had earned one along the way himself,” he just didn't have the paper the others did.

Mr. Adams retired from Kraft in 1996, when he was the retail sales manager for the eastern seaboard based in Charlotte. After retirement, he and Mrs. Adams moved to Stone Mountain where they lived together until she died in June 2003.

Mr. Adams was a student of life and read books that covered a wide range of subjects. He particularly loved history and politics and in his retirement years, he was asked on more than one occasion to consider running for an office, his son said. But he always declined. Instead, Mr. Adams enjoyed spending time with his grandchildren and their children.

“I loved the way he doted on my children,” David W. Adams said of his grandfather. “He was the first person to call after a success of any kind and he never missed a graduation or birthday party.”

Mr. Adams is remembered by friends and family as one who encouraged others, especially his children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren, to do and be their best.

Marsha Kelley said her father was a warm and thoughtful man of God and the “most supportive encourager I know.”

“He’d say, ‘You can do this,’ in anything from finding a job to playing sports,” she said. “He’d root you on like you were the best.”