The Humphrey School of Public Affairs is remembering the contributions of John Adams, professor emeritus of planning, who died November 19 after an extended illness. He was 86 years old.
Adams had a long and distinguished career at the University of Minnesota. After earning his PhD in economics and geography from the U of M in 1966, he joined the faculty in 1970, teaching geography, planning, and public affairs. He made significant contributions to the growth of the School’s urban and regional planning program, and the School itself as its first director from 1976 to 1979.
“John’s legacy is woven into the very fabric of the Humphrey School and the U of M,” said Humphrey School Dean Nisha Botchwey. “As the first director of the School, he was instrumental in advancing a multidisciplinary and integrated approach to public affairs education. Our faculty, students, staff, and community are all better for his insightful leadership.”
Before his time as leader of the School, Adams was the inaugural director of the urban and regional planning master’s degree from 1971 to 1973.
In his 2018 book, Humphrey School of Public Affairs 1969-1979, A Personal Memoir, Adams recalled that U of M leaders decided to create an urban planning program in the late 1960s, “when urban crises exploded across many big cities in the United States, from New England to California,” as well as in the Twin Cities.
They determined it was a better fit to place the planning program in the school of public affairs rather than the School of Architecture, as had been suggested earlier.
“I believed that an urban and regional planning program—training people to consider how urban-industrial activity was affecting important facets of the state’s economy and natural environments—was something that the school and our university should be paying more attention to,” Adams wrote.
Transformational leader
A few years later, Adams was tapped to lead the School of Public Affairs, which was part of the College of Liberal Arts at the time, and he oversaw its transition to the stand-alone Hubert H. Humphrey Institute of Public Affairs.
The Institute was established in 1977 at Humphrey’s request, to be “devoted to the education and training of young people for public service,” shortly before he died of cancer (it was renamed the Humphrey School in 2011). Professor Emeritus John Bryson, who was hired by Adams in 1977, recalled how Adams played a crucial role in shepherding that transition.
“When I joined the school it was small, not very diverse in terms of demographic or disciplinary features, and in many ways not very professional in terms of its governance and administration. John was an important part of the move to make the place more professional, more diverse in many ways, including degree offerings, and much bigger with a far broader national and international impact,” Bryson said.
“He was an extremely important transitional figure—respectful of the present but always leaning forward to bigger and better things. He was always committed to high-quality teaching, research, and public service.”
‘An ideal colleague’
In addition to his leadership of the School, Adams is remembered by colleagues for his warmth and welcoming manner. Barbara Crosby, Bryson’s wife and another faculty member, recalled how Adams invited them to get-togethers when they first arrived in Minneapolis.
“These convivial gatherings helped us feel at home in the newly formed Humphrey Institute,” Crosby said. “John Adams was in the habit of welcoming people, not only to the Institute, but to the broader Twin Cities and its communities.”
“John was gregarious and fun, and always had a twinkle in his eye,” added Ryan Allen, associate dean and professor of urban and regional planning. “He was incredibly supportive of junior faculty, and made a point of visiting me in my office frequently in my first year at the Humphrey School.”
In addition to his leadership at the Humphrey School, Adams was a prominent member of the U of M’s geography department, and served as its chair three separate times: 1981–84, 1992, and 1999–2005. He was also a member of the American Association of Geographers.
Adams’s work focused on issues relating to North American cities, urban housing markets and housing policy, and regional economic development in the United States and the former Soviet Union. He also collaborated with the U of M’s Center for Urban and Regional Affairs (CURA), the Center for Transportation Studies (CTS), and the Minnesota Population Center (MPC).
“John Adams was just an ideal colleague and university citizen,” said another friend, Professor Emeritus Bob Kudrle. “I once wrote a letter of support for him for a University-wide service award, and reviewed all of the committees, task forces, and special assignments that John had agreed to serve on—and then worked diligently on. It was staggering.”
One of Adams’s real loves was the Twin Cities metropolitan area. He grew up in southwest Minneapolis, went to college in the area, and lived in Minneapolis most of his life. He even wrote a book on the subject, Minneapolis-St. Paul: People, Place, and Public Life, a seminal work examining the social, economic, and geographic changes shaping the Twin Cities.
“His knowledge of the Twin Cities became legendary,” said Kudrle. “For many years he gave a guided tour of the area to incoming Humphrey School students, and he could talk at length about every neighborhood.”
“He was fond of his home terrain,” Crosby added.
Retired but still involved
After retiring from teaching in 2007, Adams served as interim associate dean at the Humphrey School, then served as co-director of the University Metropolitan Consortium, which links departments, centers and programs at the University that address problems of metropolitan and statewide development. He was also a member of the Humphrey School Dean’s Advisory Council from 2015 to 2023.
In recognition of his longtime support of CTS, the center established the John S. Adams Award for Excellence in Transportation Research and Education in 2009, to recognize U of M graduate students who demonstrate outstanding academic achievement in planning and public policy fields.
Funeral services are Tuesday, Dec 3 at 11 a.m. at Christ the King Catholic Church in Minneapolis, with visitation beginning at 10 a.m. Burial is at Lakewood Cemetery in Minneapolis at 2:30 p.m.
