wfn.org | [PCUSANEWS] George Adams hangs 'em up after almost 40 years

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Note #7883 from PCUSA NEWS to PRESBYNEWS:

George Adams hangs 'em up after almost 40 years
03337
August 18, 2003

George Adams hangs 'em up after almost 40 years

Board of Pensions veep, corporate secretary retired Aug. 1

By Karen Babik, Board of Pensions
and Jerry L. Van Marter

PHILADELPHIA - After nearly 40 years of distinguished Presbyterian ministry -
and rabid support of the Cincinnati Reds - the Rev. George T. Adams hung up
his ecclesiastical spikes Aug. 1.
He and his wife, Diane, plans to remain in Bensalem, PA, near Philadelphia.
They have two grown children and twin grandsons.

As a pastor, presbytery stated clerk and for the last 15 years as
vice-president and corporate secretary for the denomination's Board of
Pensions (BOP), Adams distinguished himself as an astute observer of the
church, a blunt-speaking advocate for justice, an effective administrator and
a fiercely loyal Presbyterian who gave his all for the church he loved.

The Rev. Dan Clark, a member of the BOP board of directors who was mentored
by Adams early in his career, said, "George Adams was a teacher of and about
the reality of the church... The one he loved and taught was the one that
could be capricious and difficult. In many ways, he saw it as a personality
that one had to get to know and learn to live with.... Basically, George
lived the principle that the church was as only as good as you are willing to
make it."

Born in Fostoria, OH, and raised in Bellefontaine, OH, Adams earned a B.S. in
Business Administration at the Miami University in Oxford, OH. He graduated
from Chicago Theological Seminary and was ordained by Columbus (OH)
Presbytery in 1965.

Adams pastored to congregations in Groveport and Franklin, OH and found his
call to the governing body life of the PC(USA) early on. He helped merge two
presbyteries into the Presbytery of Scioto Valley and became its first stated
clerk. He was elected to the General Assembly Permanent Judicial Commission
in the mid seventies and later served as stated clerk/treasurer for the
Presbytery of Blackhawk in Illinois.

Adams joined the Board of Pensions in 1988 and was instrumental in developing
the BOP's "relief of conscience" provisions for sessions and plan members
conscientiously opposed to abortion, as well as the streamlining of the
board's post-retirement service rules and total quality management program.

(The web version of the story containing a picture  is available at
http://pcusa.org/pcnews/03337.htm.)

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