Maynard Adams
American philosopher (1919-2003)
Elie Maynard Adams (December 29, 1919 – November 17, 2003) was an American philosopher of value and meaning devoted to understanding and criticizing the philosophical foundations of modern Western culture and developing an intellectual vision that makes sense of the human condition.
Biography
Adams was born on December 29, 1919 in Clarkton, Halifax County, Virginia, to Wade Hampton Adams and Bessie Calloway Adams. He grew up on a tobacco farm and attended a one-room school.
He was married for 61 years to Phyllis Stevenson Adams.
Among other personal projects, he hand-dug a full-sized basement to his family home with a pick ax, a shovel and a wheelbarrow, including completing the masonry and the electrical wiring himself.
Adams died on November 17, 2003, at age 83.
Education
Adams received his undergraduate degree and a master's degree in philosophy from the University of Richmond. While there, he was pastor of several churches. He received a divinity degree from Colgate Rochester and his doctorate in philosophy from Harvard in 1948.
After finishing his doctorate, Adams said he wanted to return to the South because he loved the South and wanted to help the region confront and reject its history of racism.
The public source identifies “Maynard Adams” as american philosopher (1919-2003). This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Maynard, Adams and American.
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Biographical claims are most persuasive when dates, appointments and relationships can be traced to records created close to the events described. The source revision retrieved here is dated Apr 14, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q6797390. VIAF identifies the subject as 91225871. The Library of Congress control number is n50057542. 3 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1919, 2003 and 1948.
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This entry incorporates text from “Maynard Adams” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.