Obituary of Richard G. Adams

Richard G. (“Dick”) Adams, 89, passed away Sunday, August 7, 2016, at Harrogate, in Lakewood, NJ. He was a long-time resident of West Point Island, Lavallette, NJ. He was born in Montclair, NJ, and grew up there with his two brothers, Edgar and Donald, now deceased. He graduated from Brown University with a degree in chemical engineering. He worked for Owens Corning Fiberglass in Rhode Island. An exciting project he worked on was the first car built with a fiberglass body, the original Chevrolet Corvette, built in Ashtabula, Ohio. He later worked for Exxon Research in NJ, and then J.P. Stevens Research Laboratory, first in Garfield, NJ, and later in Greenville, SC. In Greenville, he worked on aerospace materials, including woven fabric heat shields for the NASA space shuttle. After retiring and moving back to NJ, he was retained as a consultant for JPS Research Laboratory for an additional 19 years. Dick served his country in the Army Air Corps in World War II, stationed in the Philippines. He was a member of the Lavallette Yacht Club since childhood. He loved to tell the story of how he met his wife of 67 years, Elizabeth (“Betty”) Adams, rescuing her from a mishap in a Sneakbox sailboat when they were teenagers. He served as commodore of the Lavallette Yacht Club from 1973-74. He raced many kinds of sailboats at the LYC and in BBYRA regattas on Barnegat Bay, with Betty as his crew. In Lavallette, he served on the Lavallette Heritage Committee, and the environmental committee that first planned sand dunes for the Lavallette beach to minimize erosion. He kept a well-equipped wood shop wherever he lived, building boats, built-in bookcases, duck decoys, and toys for his children and grandchildren. Dick and Betty traveled extensively. Travel highlights included snorkeling in Tahiti and landing by helicopter on a glacier in Alaska. They celebrated their 65th wedding anniversary on a Harrogate cruise to Nova Scotia Dick is survived by his wife, Elizabeth (“Betty”) Fenton Adams. Also surviving are his daughter, Susan Adams Boyd and her husband, John; his son, Richard G. Adams and his wife Barbara; four grandchildren, David Boyd (and his wife, Ashley), Alison Boyd, Hilary Adams, and Brent Adams; one great grandson, Kevin David Boyd; and many nieces and nephews. Cremation is private under the care of Ocean County Cremation Service, Toms River.