Walter Adams: in memoriam.

• Author: Elzinga, Kenneth G.
• Position: Vice president of the Southern Economic Association - Obituary

Walter Adams, Vice President of the Southern Economic Association, died on September 8, 1998 after a short illness. He was seventy-eight years old. Adams is survived by his wife Pauline, his son William James Adams (Professor of Economics at the University of Michigan), his daughter-in-law Barbara (Sadoff) Adams, and two grandsons.

Walter Adams was born in Vienna on August 27, 1922, grew up in New York City, and graduated from Brooklyn College in 1942. He began graduate studies in economics at the University of Chicago (1942-43) but left for military duty in World War II where he served with heroic distinction. Adams took part in the Normandy invasion and the Battle of the Bulge, served as aide-de-camp to General Dager of 83rd Infantry Division, and was awarded the Bronze Star Medal. In 1945 he enrolled at Yale University and completed his doctoral degree two years later.

In 1947, Adams joined the faculty of Michigan State University as Assistant Professor of Economics. He retired in 1993 as Distinguished University Professor. In East Lansing, Adams began a career of antitrust scholarship from which he rarely swerved, save for publications about university governance, the brain drain, and international education. In 1969, he served as the acting President of Michigan State University, declining the petitions of 20,000 students and 950 faculty to continue in this role. In his view of the academic hierarchy, a return to the professorial ranks was a promotion, Adams announced.

As a classroom teacher, Adams was a skillful lecturer and feared user of the socratic method of pedagogy. Many Michigan State University graduates prided themselves as being "veterans" of "Econ 444," a course on private enterprise and government regulation that Adams made famous. Adams also was a devoted sports fan, known in the Big Ten for the advice and counsel he offered opposing teams from behind their bench. He regularly joined the Michigan State University Marching Band for its entrance into Spartan Stadium. So great was the affection for this dedicated and exuberant faculty fan that the band made Adams an honorary member.

A frequent testifier before Congressional committees, Adams eschewed opportunities to operate long-term inside the Beltway. He declined President Lyndon Johnson's importuning to head the International Trade Commission (then, the International Tariff Commission).

Adams was a gifted writer and also a...