Doane M. Lowery Society

 

Peter D. Adams ’54

Peter Adams was the “bad boy” of the Class of ’54. He didn’t want to be at Prep, and looked upon his time there as punishment for his poor performance in public school. Fifty demerits led to expulsion and Peter often had 49; many demerits were for smoking on campus but he was in academic trouble too. Demerits were worked off by doing gardening or clean up work on campus. He also had to report to “night school,” which was study hall in the evenings for the boarding students—but he was not a boarder—he had to return to campus after dinner at home.

Despite all his troubles at Flintridge Prep, he has a soft spot in his heart for the school. Though the administration was rigid, disciplinary, and unyielding back then, he acknowledges he learned a lot. Peter feels Flintridge is where he began to get his act together; he was too immature to know it at the time, but it was Flintridge that helped make him the person he is today.

Peter matriculated to Claremont McKenna College and shared a room with his Prep classmate, Earle Jorgensen. He realized in college he was better prepared than most of his contemporaries. Although collegiate life was interrupted by 3 years in the Army, he went back and graduated with a degree in Business Economics in 1961.

Soon after, Peter married his wife Becky, had two daughters, and started a business designing and manufacturing control systems for heavy-duty vehicles. He says of those years: “I was using borrowed money and doing things on a shoestring, but I had a dream and a healthy fear of failure. I had to be a “jack of all trades,” from doing design engineering to production, concept to selling, finance to collection. I am naturally a curious person, and Prep taught me how to organize my thoughts. With the proper training, anyone can manufacture; my goal was to find ways to add value—to develop unique intellectual property.” After running that successful business for almost 40 years, and also his father’s hardware manufacturing business for the last 20 years, Peter was ready for new challenges, so 3 years ago he sold them both.

He wanted tangibly to express his gratitude for his many blessings and give back to his community, so he established the Adams Legacy Foundation with some of the proceeds from the sale of his companies. Its focus is on education and land conservation. He serves on the Boards of The Wildling Art Museum, Land Trust for Santa Barbara County and the Keck Institute at CMC, which keeps him near to the mission of the Foundation.

Having spent much of his life working in manufacturing and engineering, Peter decided he wanted to do something completely different and use the other side of his brain. He took courses at Mission: Renaissance Fine Art Studio in La Canada and developed a love for painting—today he paints mostly en plein air near his homes in Santa Barbara and Indian Wells.

Peter mentioned his painting in the context that he feels students are well advised to get the broadest background possible—study the liberal arts; learn to use both sides of their brain—that will lead to more fulfilling and interesting lives. He believes Flintridge Prep provides a wide-ranging, high quality, and foundational education for students, which is why he continues to support the school. He believes the leadership of Peter Bachmann has created an atmosphere of respect that nurtures the students, which is a far cry from his time, and has established Prep as one of the outstanding schools in the nation.

Recently, Peter liquidated an IRA account and rather than pay taxes on the distribution, rolled it over to Flintridge Prep and became a founding member of the Lowery Society.

Sometimes it takes a while to understand the gifts we have received. Peter acknowledges that although he was a bad boy at the time, Flintridge has been a part of all the good he has found in his life.

Individuals who take the step to include Flintridge Prep in their estate plans and notify the school will be honored as members of the Lowery Society. For more information, please contact the Director of Development.