Frank Montgomery Adams (1925 - 1990)

Born 26 Sep 1925 in Memphis, Tennessee

Ancestors

Descendants

Died 27 May 1990 at age 64 in Missouri

Problems/Questions Profile manager: Bill Hunter [send private message]

Biography

Captain Frank Adams, an Annapolis graduate and career Naval Officer, was second-in-command during the USS Nautilus’ historic submerged crossing of the North Pole and was an outstanding military leader.

FRANK MONTGOMERY ADAMS (HENRY5, WILLIAM4, HENRY CLAY3, WILLIAM2, WILLIAM1) was born September 26, 1925 in Memphis, Tennessee, and died May 27, 1990 in Missouri. He married NOVELLA HORTON CAPPS, daughter of EDWIN CAPPS and LAINE HORTON, on June 06, 1946 in Washington, DC. She was born October 02, 1925 in Raleigh, North Carolina, and died with Frank May 27, 1990 in Missouri in a single-engine air crash in Missouri. They are buried together at Arlington Cemetery, Virginia.

Frank was born in Memphis, Tennessee, but was raised in Tunica, Mississippi. He was active in the Episcopal Church, Boy Scouts (becoming an Eagle Scout in 1939), and football. Of course, living in Missouri, he did lots of fishing for catfish in the Mississippi River. Following High School, Frank received an appointment to the U.S. Naval Academy.

Owing to the ongoing War for much of the time they were in Annapolis, Frank M. Adams and his classmate Jimmy Carter, the 34th President of the United States, graduated from the United States Naval Academy in 1946, a year early. Following graduation, Frank served on the battleship Missouri; the USS Cobbler, a snorkel submarine; the USS Tang, a newly introduced attack submarine possessing some of the most lethal equipment in the Navy); and the USS Tiru. He then attended the Advanced Nuclear Power School in New London, Connecticut.

All this, was in preparation for his duty aboard the USS Nautilus and the historic, first submerged crossing of the North Pole. President Harry S. Truman laid the Nautilus keel at the Electric Boat Shipyard in Groton, Connecticut, on June 14, 1952. (An interesting family note is that Electric Boat was the company on which Wall Street broker, J. Robinson Duff, second husband of Edith Adams and great-granddaughter of William Adams, made his initial fortune back in 1915).

After nearly 18 months of construction, the Nautilus was launched on January 21, 1954 with First Lady Mamie Eisenhower breaking the traditional bottle of champagne across the Nautilus’ bow, as the Nautilus slid down the ways into the Thames River. Eight months later, on September 30, 1954, the Nautilus became the first commissioned nuclear-powered submarine in the United States Navy.

On July 23, 1958, the Nautilus departed Pearl Harbor, Hawaii under top-secret orders to conduct "Operation Sunshine," the first crossing of the North Pole by a ship. At 11:15 PM, on August 3, 1958, the Nautilus ' Second Commanding Officer, Commander William R. Anderson, USN, announced to his crew "For the World, Our Country, and the Navy - the North Pole." Lieutenant Commander Frank M. Adams was second in command among the 116 men aboard the Nautilus, at the moment it accomplished the "impossible," reaching the geographic North Pole -- 90 degrees north .

The feat received worldwide publicity and changed the complexion of the Cold War. The crew was celebrated with a ticker tape parade in New York City and President Dwight D. Eisenhower awarded the Nautilus the Presidential Unit Citation, the first time it was awarded in peacetime. Meanwhile, the Commander In Chief of the United States Atlantic Fleet singled out Lieutenant Commander Frank M. Adams for exceptionally meritorious service.

According to Bill Poore: After the Artic crossing, Frank gave a talk to grades 4 through 12 in the Tunica public school (Bill Poore was in 6th grade). Later that evening Bill and his mother had dinner with Frank and Ione. (provided by Bill Poore, family friend)

Thereafter, Frank Adams remained in the Navy, where he was repeatedly decorated as the Commanding Officer of the USS Halfbeek, the USS Swordfish (1963-1966), and the USS Benjamin Franklin (1966). In addition, from 1961- 1963, he served on the Staff of the Naval Reactors Division of the Atomic Energy Commission; and, from 1968-1969, he served on the Staff charged with designing the Trident submarine under Vice Admiral Hyman Rickover. In honor of his exemplary service, an award for junior officer leadership was named for him: The Frank M. Adams Junior Officer Leadership Award.

At the time of his death, Frank Adams was on the Board of the Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, the world's largest, fully accredited university specializing in aviation and aerospace, in Daytona Beach, Florida, which created the Frank and Novella Adams Scholarship in his memory.

Children of FRANK ADAMS and NOVELLA CAPPS are: i . HARRIETTE MONTGOMERY ADAMS ii. ROGER CLINTON ADAMS iii. FRANK MONTGOMERY ADAMS iv. ROBERT HORTON ADAMS v. JOHNATHAN DAVID ADAMS

Sources

• Harriette Adams records

Commander William R. Anderson, Nautilus 90 North, (Cleveland and New York: The World Publishing Co., 1959)

NYTimes Obituary:

Frank M. Adams, the president of the Morrison Knudsen Company, and his wife, Novella, were killed on Sunday morning when a single-engine plane he was flying crashed near Naylor, Mo. Both were 64 years old and lived in Boise, Idaho, where Morrison Knudsen, one of the world's largest heavy-construction concerns, has its headquarters.

Witnesses told the Missouri Highway Patrol that the plane appeared to have lost its wings, according to The Associated Press. The Adamses were returning to Boise after visiting children in Tennessee. Mrs. Adams was the plane's only passenger.

Mr. Adams joined Morrison Knudsen in 1988 as executive vice president and was made president last August. He had been with the Bendix Corporation and a successor, the aircraft systems division of the Allied-Signal Corporation, from 1969 to 1988, retiring as the division's president.

His business career followed a 26-year career in the United States Navy, from which he retired as a captain in 1969 after having commanded two nuclear submarines and having held high administrative posts in the nuclear propulsion program initiated by Vice Adm. Hyman G. Rickover.

Mr. Adams, a native of Memphis and a 1946 graduate of the Naval Academy, was awarded the Legion of Merit upon his retirement from the Navy.

At Bendix he was director of engineering in the electrodynamics division and general manager of the communications division, supervising the production of aerospace and electronics components for the military services and for civilian markets.

After being the vice president in charge of four Bendix aerospace and electronics divisions, he became president of the group when it became a division of Allied-Signal.

Mr. Adams had worked for many years at Bendix with William M. Agee, who was ousted in 1982 as the company's chairman. In 1988 Mr. Agee was brought in by Morrison Knudsen as chairman and chief executive, and a year later he recruited Mr. Adams to serve as president and chief operating officer.

Survivors include four sons, Capt. Clint Adams of Annapolis, Md., Monty of Decherd, Tenn., Robert of Sandy Spring, Md., and David of Clearwater, Fla.; a daughter, Harriette Graham of Chattanooga, Tenn.; a sister, Grace Maglsky of Circle, Mont., and 10 grandchildren.