John Adams – 50th Reunion Essay

John Adams

2400 King Street

Alexandria, VA 22301

john.adams.bk.69@aya.yale.edu

703-549-6308

Spouse(s): Peggy Schnarr Adams (1976 )

Child(ren): Elizabeth Ann Adams (Yale, 2004 [BK Col]) )

Education: University of Pennsylvania, MA (1971), Ph.D (1976)

National Service: 276th Army Band, Pennsylvania Army National Guard, 1970-1976

Career: Technical Editor, Roy F. Weston, Inc. for 4 years; Editor, McKinsey & Company, 2 years; Program Analyst, US Environmental Protection Agency, 28 years

Avocations: Saxophone and Clarinet player in several dance bands. Bridge player

College: Berkeley

I play mostly tenor and bari saxophone nowadays. Not the metal clarinet that I played in the Precision Marching Band. That’s the same metal clarinet that makes excellent material for wiring as a lamp base.

In fact, we could say that the Yale Band has gotten me a wife, a career, and an avocation.

The wife: I went to graduate school at the University of Pennsylvania. I kept playing in their bands. The highlight of my tenure was several football games at which I was the announcer. I continued helping them write the scripts for halftime shows (and got them hauled in front of the provost a couple of times). In one band, I played the high-pitched E-flat clarinet right next to a cute piccolo player. That was Peggy, and we’ve now been married for 41 years.

Musical opportunities have extended to the next generation. Before she went off to Yale—another Berkeley Bird, 2004—my daughter Elizabeth played for a few years with our dance band. (A violin voice was common in the early 30s.)

The career: I spent the Vietnam era with a Military Occupational Specialty of Clarinet Player. At the end my tenure I was torn about whether it was Dr. Staff Sergeant or the reverse, Staff Sergeant Doctor Adams.

Early in my National Guard tenure, we were chatting with the third trumpet player, Steve. “What’s your day job, Steve? —“Civil engineering. I do solid waste.” [Guffaw.] Well, he really did help to design a high-tech incinerator called a pyrolysis plant.

I joined his firm as an editor while I finished my graduate studies. Not many people can say they’ve read an environmental impact statement forwards and backwards, the latter necessary for proofreading. Five years later I had a similar job at the US Environmental Protection Agency, where I stayed for a career working mostly at its headquarters as a planner.

The avocation: Over the years, I’ve played in several big bands, including the Yale Jazz Orchestra. Most of them play music from the 20s and 30s. Pop tunes, Tin Pan Alley, Hot Jazz, mostly before the Swing Era.

Typically they have a 3- or 4-sax front, with the low voice either a tenor or baritone saxophone—that’s me. I sometimes double on clarinet, but I use an ebony wood one, not the metal clarinet, which still waits to be wired as a superior table lamp.