Mr. Walter Adamson

Walter Adamson departed this life on December 30, 2015, after a long illness. The son of Swedish immigrants, he was born in New York City on January 27, 1917. Education, family, and service for others were his prime values. After high school, Walter worked full-time while obtaining a B.A. at New York University at night, then took an M.A. in 1939. He taught a year of high school and was then commissioned as an Ensign in the Navy. Major postings were in Washington, DC, and at the U.S. Embassy in Venezuela and later Ecuador where, on leaving, he was honored with the Order of Abdon Calderon. Later, as a reserve, he attained the rank of Captain USNRCR. As an educational professional for forty years, Dr. Adamson leaves a lengthy legacy of accomplishment. After the Navy he taught and served in the administration at Central Connecticut State College, while also completing a Doctorate in International Relations at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, Tufts University (1955). He then joined the U.S. Office of Education (USOE) in Washington and developed a Cooperative Research Program involving consultation and negotiation with colleges and universities. In 1960 he moved on to USAID Guatemala under the Alliance for Progress, which led to the construction of over 200 rural elementary schools. Next he was appointed U.S. Adviser to the Superior Council of Universities of Central America (CSUCA) in San Jose, Costa Rica. While there, he also developed a still-thriving Graduate Institute for Business Administration (INCAE) and coordinated President J.F. Kennedy’s visit to and speech at the National University attended by 10,000 people. In 1965, he returned to the U.S., first as Regional Director for USOE in San Francisco, then as Director of Human Resources Development for Latin America (USAID/Department of State) in Washington, DC, and finally as a World Bank specialist on Latin American education. By 1970 he was in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil as USAID Education Office Director where he implemented an $80 million middle-school construction program. He then moved to Lima, Peru, where he developed a new Graduate School of Business Management (ESAN). After his foreign service, Dr. Adamson became Vice President and Professor at Bridgewater State College in Massachusetts. While there he also developed the Public Administration and International Relations components of its newly formed Political Science Department. In all the positions he held, Walter enjoyed professional challenges, thrived on the creativity required to meet them, and relished adapting to a diversity of cultures. Yet the fact that he both began and finished his career with students in the classroom is telling; it was a passion he would pursue even upon retiring to Asheville, NC, in 1987. During his professional life, Dr. Adamson was variously honored: with the Order of the Quetzal personally presented by the President of Guatemala; the Special Citation for Meritorious Service at USOE; and Distinguished Professor at Bridgewater State College. He was also elected to the Honorary Historical Society at NYU and the Alumni Hall of Fame at James Monroe High School. And he will be remembered by his many friends, former students and associates at home and abroad. Civic service was central for Dr. Adamson, wherever he lived. He was a founding member of Civitan Club, New Britain, CT; a PTA President, Springfield, VA; on the Board of Directors of American Schools in Rio de Janeiro and Lima; and a Board Secretary for the Duxbury, MA, Community Council, as well as for the Leadership Asheville Alumni Association. He served six years on the Board of the UNCA Foundation and as Chairman thereof; was selected for the President’s Circle of the Asheville Citizen-Times; and, in a capstone experience, worked on the Task Force which brought into being the College for Seniors at UNCA, drafted its By-Laws, and was the founding President of its Board. While serving in the Navy in Venezuela, Walter met and then courted Mariza de Faro, a daughter of the Brazilian Ambassador. Their marriage in Caracas on January 12, 1945, led to over seventy years of a loving and happy union, even as it survived fourteen changes of residence in the USA and abroad. In addition to his wife Mariza, he is survived by their three children: Walter L. and his wife Lauren, David and his wife Karen, and Carolyn and her husband Charles. Also by his five grand children, Daniel and Nash, Jillian, Eddie and Sally, and by three great grandchildren, Theodore, Jasper, and Janelle; also by his nephew Carlos, wife Jaqueline, and their family of Cincinnati; by niece Sylvia and her husband Peter of Huarmey, Peru; and by nephew Warren and his wife Barbara of Gainesville, Florida. Celebration of life services will be held at 11 am, Saturday, January 23, at Grace Episcopal Church, 871 Merrimon Avenue, Asheville, NC 28804. Family will receive friends immediately after the service and internment will be at State Veterans’ Cemetery, Black Mountain, NC. In lieu of flowers friends may wish to remember Walter with a donation to Care Partners, Hospice and Palliative Care Services at 68 Sweeten Creek Road, Asheville, NC 28803.

Tributes

Mr. Walter Adamson

January 27, 1917 - December 30, 2015