Philip White Adams, 81, was a son of the late Fannie H. White and Solomon Benjamin (Sol) Adams and husband of Mae Williford Adams. He was known to family and friends as "Phil" and to nine grandchildren as "G-Daddy". He played basketball and baseball at Colerain High School, Bertie County, NC. Mr. Adams earned his B.S. Degree in Forest Management from North Carolina State University. He received an athletic letter from the Rifle Team, played soccer one year as a club, earned two letters from Varsity Soccer, serving as team Captain his senior year.
Upon graduation, he entered the U.S. Army Infantry as an ROTC 2nd Lieutenant in June 1953, serving during the later stages of the Korean War at the Infantry Training Center, Fort Benning, GA. He was honorably discharged as a 1st Lieutenant in March, 1955.
After military service, Mr. Adams was employed as a Land Bank Appraiser by the Federal Land Bank of Columbia, working in eastern North Carolina. In 1956, Phil married Mae Williford of Windsor, Bertie County, N.C. In 1961, the Adams family, with their first child, relocated from Windsor to Columbia where Mr. Adams served with the Federal Land Bank of Columbia, operating in four southeastern states, as Appraisal Supervisor, Assistant Vice President, and with the Farm Credit Administration as Assistant Chief Reviewing Appraiser, in the Columbia office.
In 1966, Mr. Adams accepted a position as County Tax Assessor of Richland County (includes the City of Columbia). While Assessor, he authored an article entitled "Attaining and Maintaining Equalized Assessed Values", 1967, which was presented at a national meeting of the International Association of Assessing Officials (IAAO) in Washington, D.C. Mr. Adams served a term as President of the South Carolina Chapter of IAAO.
In 1973, Mr. Adams opened an appraisal office, Adams Appraisal Associates, Inc., in Columbia, through 2006. He maintained designations of MAI from the Appraisal Institute, Registered Forester (RF) from the Society of American Foresters and Certified General Real Estate Appraiser in South and North Carolina. In 2006, Mr. Adams sold his appraisal business to Milliken Forestry Company, Inc. (MFC) and was employed by them for three additional years. In 2009, he returned to self-employment as an independent fee appraiser of real estate until his retirement last year.
Mr. Adams was a member of Kilbourne Park Baptist Church where he served as Sunday School teacher and Assistant Boy Scout Leader. He enjoyed hunting, fishing, canoeing and camping with his wife and four children. He especially enjoyed a lifetime of bird watching and wildflower identification. He published a pamphlet about a pair of mourning doves who raised six broods in one season in a nest in a fern on the second story patio of their Columbia home.
Surviving are his beloved wife of 55 years, daughter, Donna Adams Hall and child, Kelly, Suwanee, GA.; sons, David (Stacy) Adams and children, Hilliary, Wesley and Reagan of Charlotte, Lee (Renee) Adams and children, Jack and Maggie, Jason (Alice) Adams and children, Sarah, Rebekah, and Anna Katherine, of Columbia; sisters, Margaret A. (Bill) Parker, of Newport News, VA., Miriam A. (Walter) Wise; brothers, Frank (Elaine) Adams, of Windsor, NC, Jack (Zelna) Adams, Truett (June) Adams, both of Colerain, NC; and sister-in-law, Jesse Mae Adams. In addition to his parents, he was predeceased by sister, Josephine Adams Enright (Graham) Pierce of Boise, Idaho; brothers, John Milton (Elizabeth) Adams, of Windsor, Ben (Myrtle) Adams, Spencer (Dorothy) Adams, and Max Adams, all of Merry Hill, N.C.

Brother Max Adams #60393510
Brother Solomon Benjamin Adams, Jr. #43945270

Published in The State on January 20, 2012