Frank Adams – 50th Reunion Essay

Frank Adams

222 Blackburn Ave

Menlo Park, California 94025

f.w.adams@att.net

650-387-1432

Spouse(s): Susan Carson Bryan (1986)

Child(ren): Johnathan Werber Adams (1995)

Education: Yale BA Mathematics & Physics (1969); University of California, Berkeley, MS (1971), PhD (1976), Physics

Career: 34 years with Lockheed Martin as Research Scientist, then Electro-Optical Engineer

Avocations: Interest, not expertise: “Early” music, California native plants

College: Ezra Stiles

Life Stories

After a rocky senior year I felt lucky to have the choice of two physics grad schools. I consulted (then assistant professor) Robert Socolow, who had been at both institutions. He stared into space for a moment before pronouncing, “Go to Berkeley, Adams. It’ll shake you up.” Not exactly career advice, but happily accepted to escape from New England winters. I didn’t expect the rest of my life to turn on it.

Warm hospitality from Bill Stanisich’s parents eased me into California for the summer term. But I confirmed the Socolow Effect experimentally by staying in a Telegraph Avenue apartment which overlooked a reprise of the People’s Park riot. So when Bart Billard joined me in the fall, we chose to live farther from the epicenter.

After grad school I eventually found an applied research position with Lockheed that was at most tenuously related to my degree. I moved to Menlo Park and, 34 years later, graduated from Lockheed Martin as an electro-optical engineer. That is what my business card said, but I never learned to read engineering drawings without expert help.

In 1981 my sister’s housemate asked me to drive her friend to their San Francisco apartment for a party. That ride sparked a reciprocal hate-at-first-utterance explosion, and my passenger found other transportation home. We married in 1986. It’s still fun to tell the competing stories live.

Another story better told in person is how our son Johnathan was named for the family clock. (Hint: it’s about the extra “h.”) I found joy in the entire package of parental duties: night shift, diaper duty, Richard Scarry and Thomas, inventing names for toys and making their voices, Little League, assistant scoutmaster, jazz band chaperone, and safety monitor then mentor for the robotics team. And now, pride in a young man who knows his own character and sticks to his values.