Dr. William Walter Adams Jr.

William (Will) Walter Adams, Jr. was born in Tuscaloosa, Alabama in mid-summer (8 July) of 1929 while his parents were visiting relatives. Between family visits to Alabama and Akron, Ohio, trips to Washington, D.C., and a family trip around the western US, he and his brother Bert grew up in Wayne, Pennsylvania until they moved to Kansas City, Kansas in 1946 where Will completed his senior year of high school. After a subsequent year at Kansas City, Kansas Junior College, he earned BA and MA degrees in Political Science at the University of Kansas, during which time he also served in a medical unit of the Kansas National Guard.

While pursuing the MA degree, he courted and married (1953) Eleaner Ruth Ormond who was completing a degree in Bacteriology. They moved to Liberty, Missouri in 1956, where Will took a position as professor of political science at William Jewell College. He influenced the careers and lives of many, many students over 34 years. In 1958, he began work on his PhD (comparing the US legal system with that of the Soviet Union) through Columbia University. Between teaching at William Jewell and two summer stints at Tulane University, he finally earned his doctorate in 1968. He co-founded the Kansas-Missouri Bi-State Slavic Conference in 1962, which has continued to meet annually. However, participants from surrounding states were soon attending as well, so it became the Central Slavic Conference (next meeting in November 2023). After retiring from William Jewell in 1989, he was invited to teach classes to Russians and Estonians in Irkutsk (Siberia – 1991 and 1993) and Tallinn (Estonia – 1992).

His life, however, was defined by many additional passions beyond his profession as a scholar and teacher. As denoted in the subtitle to his autobiography (My First Hundred Years), he was also a keyboardist, band leader, ballroom dance instructor, and board game inventor. Piano lessons beginning at the age of six led to a lifetime of playing, including at the two senior living communities where his final years were spent. After participating in one band while at William Jewell, he formed two additional bands after retirement that played gigs in various locations. His first exposure to ballroom dancing occurred when he was 13, and he taught thousands of students at William Jewell (from 1974 – 2017), in numerous primary and secondary schools in the Kansas City area, at several junior colleges, and other venues. He thrived in the intellectual challenge of games played around the table but appreciated physical games as well (both as a participant in earlier years and as a fan, and particularly of baseball in the latter case). His ingenuity led him to alter some traditional games, including multiple design and method-of-play changes to chess and checkers that allowed up to six players at a time.

He was also passionate about politics, both as a student at the University of Kansas and as an active member of the democratic party at county (including as Chairman of the Clay County Democratic Central Committee in the early 1970s), state, and national levels. In 1974, he established the Institute for Social Research that conducted public opinion surveys for government bodies (cities, counties, school districts), candidates for public office, political parties, and other entities over the next 25 years.

Will Adams was preceded in death by his wife of 57 years, Eleaner Adams, in 2010. Will is survived by two sons and their spouses (William W. Adams III and his wife Barbara Demmig-Adams, and James K. Adams and his wife Kathy Parker-Adams) as well as four grandchildren (Robert, Melanie, Patrick, and Samantha Adams). He is also survived by his younger brother Bert Adams and wife Diane, and their children and grandchildren. Lastly, Will might have been gone sooner if it were not for his wonderful partner since 2014, Dorothy (Dottie) Bueng. Dottie, William, and James were grateful to be able to celebrate Will’s 94th birthday with him two and a half months before his passing.