{"id":49337,"date":"2020-02-06T12:23:13","date_gmt":"2020-02-06T18:23:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/?p=49337"},"modified":"2020-02-14T10:10:23","modified_gmt":"2020-02-14T16:10:23","slug":"fred-c-adams-1931-2020","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/fred-c-adams-1931-2020\/","title":{"rendered":"Fred C. Adams, 1931-2020"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\nFriends hoped Fred Adams would go on forever. Not in order to keep having grandiose ideas like that of founding a world-class Shakespearean festival in the middle of the Utah desert (and then bringing that dream to fruition in a big, Tony- and Emmy-award-winning way), but just to kick back and enjoy the fruits of his endeavors while they enjoyed his most-enjoyable company. But Adams wasn\u2019t a kick-back kind of guy. And, his work done, he died early Thursday morning, Feb. 6, 2020, in the Cedar City Hospital at the age of 89.<\/h4>\n

\u201cThe state\u2019s most prominent arts leader, Adams made a deep and lasting impact on everyone he met, and it is with a heavy heart that we say goodbye to our leader and friend,\u201d the Utah Shakespeare Festival wrote in a press release.<\/h4>\n

His oldest and best friend, Cedar City Councilman R. Scott Phillips, was at his side in the hospital as he had been so often during the past 48 years. Phillips was Executive Director of the Utah Shakespeare Festival for a decade, only stepping down in 2016 to run for council office. He recalls that Adams was a reader of just about anything, but particularly loved English history: \u201cTudor history, anything relative to the time of Shakespeare. Anytime we would travel, he had a book he was sharing.\u201d He read mysteries, too. \u201cAnd political novels,\u201d his friend recalls. \u201cTom Clancy. He also read \u201cTime\u201d magazine \u201cand PEOPLE magazine for the scandal and drama,\u201d says Phillips with a short laugh.<\/h4>\n

\u201cHe traveled because he just liked the adventure. He was truly a family man. He would be as comfortable on the stage at Carnegie as in the kitchen talking to his grandchildren. He loved travel because he found it educational: \u201cIsn\u2019t it remarkable that civilizations existed for millenniums before\u00a0we<\/em>\u00a0ever did and that we have\u00a0this<\/em>\u00a0to remember that?\u201d Fred would say. \u201cWhat we have to remember them is their art, architecture, and their literature. Not who was their mayor nor what political ordinances they passed.\u201d These are observations Phillips clearly cherishes.<\/h4>\n

Born in Cedar City on Jan. 30, 1931, Adams moved to Delta as a child and graduated from Delta High School. He was in the U.S. Army from 1952-54 and then served an LDS mission to Finland from 1955-57. He holds bachelor\u2019s and master\u2019s degrees from Brigham Young University in theater arts and Russian and did pre-doctoral work at Catholic University in Washington, D.C., and the University of Utah. After two years of teaching theater at the College of Southern Utah (now Southern Utah University), Adams founded his Shakespearean organization in 1961 with then-girlfriend and soon-to-be-wife, the late Barbara Gaddie Adams (she died in 2008).<\/h4>\n

He wanted something similar to what Ashland, Ore., had in its Shakespeare Festival for his native Cedar City \u2014 so he first went to Oregon to check out their program; on his return, he got the local Lions Club to donate a thousand dollars and with students and others around town building sets and sewing costumes, the 1962 festival was up and selling tickets, entirely under his direction: \u201cHamlet,\u201d “The Merchant of Venice,\u201d and \u201cThe Taming of the Shrew\u201d onstage with Barbara running the ever-popular Green Show that continues to entertain visitors before performances to this day. The annual budget is now more than $8 million (up from that initial donated $1,000) and boasts about a hundred thousand visitors.<\/h4>\n

Barbara and Fred Adams were a great team, Phillips believes, because she was funny and clever, but comfortable allowing him to be out front \u201cwhile she was a lot of the genius behind him. She didn\u2019t need the limelight and they were the perfect match in part because of that.\u201d<\/h4>\n

“Fred was an amazing storyteller,” says Anne Cullimore Decker, who acted with the company and was a friend of Adams.\u00a0\u201cAMAZING. He was so good at it that frequently his imagination carried him beyond the historical facts. Because it was Fred Adams who said it, it had to be true! I think everyone, including scholars, forgave him for his embellishments. They captivated his audiences and they certainly did no harm to any living individuals. His preshow informative entertainment made everyone all the more eager to see and appreciate the shows,\u201d says the Salt Lake City-based actor.<\/h4>\n

Another trait that she recalls: \u201cThere was no job too low for Fred. When I was in the company, I’d frequently see him with Scott [Phillips] riding on a cart either hanging or watering the beautiful flower baskets which adorned the area. It was a high and precarious reach to achieve either job. When I questioned him, he said, \u2018Who else is going to take on this job?\u2019 but you could see he also found a pleasure in it. I don’t think there was any job at the Festival that Fred hadn’t taken on at one time or another in his long career. We shall miss him terribly,\u201d she adds.<\/h4>\n

One thing that has always been a puzzle for this writer is the\u00a0why<\/em>\u00a0of it. Adams told a reporter on an undated video that he thought the people of Cedar City would respond to Shakespeare because of genealogy: their Welsh, Irish, and Scottish backgrounds. \u201cThose early settlers loved Shakespeare,\u201d he said.<\/h4>\n

More importantly, the county had just closed the iron mines west of town because, \u201cJapanese steel was so cheap … That devastated this little community,\u201d Adams recalled. \u201cThe miners, 700 of them, had to pick up their little families and move out. I presented to them a potential economic factor to bring people off the highway (there wasn\u2019t a freeway then), spend a night or two and help the economy. So that was the genesis behind doing this. That\u2019s how it started,\u201d Adams said.<\/h4>\n

\u201cYears and years ago, in the very early days,\u201d says Phillips, \u201che told a service organization made up of bankers and others that \u2018we can get more people if you have a good season.\u2019 Fred was trying to pick up a few dollars in donations. The bankers didn\u2019t seem to get it, but an upholstery guy in attendance said, \u2018Do you mean if more people buy hamburgers, then the upholstery wears out faster and I get to replace it sooner?\u2019\u00a0He<\/em>\u00a0got the fact that the trickledown effect could help not just the bankers but everybody,\u201d Phillips explains.<\/h4>\n

And that\u2019s the way the Utah Shakespeare Festival ultimately worked to help Cedar City. That was Fred Adams\u2019 big picture, the why of it.<\/h4>\n

Later in life, Phillips tells us, Adams adopted two little Yorkies that were his constant companions: Maximus Minimus and Cinderella. (Max and Ella were at their standing two-week grooming appointment as we spoke on the phone.) \u201cThey are having a rough time now,\u201d he observed.<\/h4>\n

One thing Phillips noticed is that as Fred Adams got older, he wanted the world to be kinder: the word \u201cCivility\u201d was stamped on a pin he wore nearly every day. \u201cHe sought a way to engage in conversation where one could maintain dignity. The man who fought so hard to create this mecca in this southwestern desert had learned there was a way to do things with civility. \u2018What would Fred do?\u2019 is what I ask on the city council as I sit there,\u201d Phillips muses.<\/h4>\n

He reminds us of a few important things:<\/h4>\n

The Chesapeake Shakespeare Company in Baltimore had a moment of silence for Adams the other night, \u201cand that is just one example. The director said, \u2018His influence is widespread and will be felt across the country.\u2019\u201d<\/h4>\n

\u201cFred taught for 38 years. He has students spread across this country. At Disney, in the motion picture industry, in Los Angeles, Dallas, New York. He was an influential teacher and didn\u2019t know how many lives he had touched,\u201d Phillips says. \u201cWe are just now getting some idea.\u201d<\/h4>\n

While serving on the Utah Arts Council, Adams was asked to speak to the Legislature for support for the arts in the state. He decided to do something different. There were 40 people in the room and Fred passed out 40 crisp dollar bills. \u201cLook at that dollar: an artist designed that bill, an artist engraved it, an artist colored it. You need to invest in those artists.\u201d They got their funding.<\/h4>\n

And on that undated video, Adams observes:<\/h4>\n

\u201cI have full confidence that the festival will continue. I\u2019m not going to be around to watch it, but I think it\u2018s in good hands, and I think it will get better.\u201d<\/h4>\n

Fred Adams is survived by a brother, four children, 14 grandchildren, and a great-grandchild.<\/h4>\n
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SERVICES THURSDAY-FRIDAY FOR FRED C. ADAMS<\/div>\n
First viewing:\u00a0Thursday,\u00a0Feb.13, 5-8 p.m. MST<\/div>\n
\u00a0Southern Utah Museum of Art, 13 S. 300 West, Cedar City 84720
\nSecond viewing: Friday, Feb.14, 9-10:30 a.m. at SUMA<\/div>\n
Funeral: Friday, Feb.14, 11 a.m. MST<\/div>\n
\u00a0Randall L. Jones Theatre, 351 W. Center St., Cedar City 84720<\/div>\n
Guest Overflow Seating: SUU Auditorium, directly west of Randall L. Jones Theatre, Cedar City<\/div>\n
The funeral service will be streamed live on YouTube for those who are unable to attend \u2014 details pending.<\/strong><\/div>\n
There will be a graveside service at Parowan Cemetery, 834 Canyon Road, Parowan 84761 immediately following the funeral.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Friends hoped Fred Adams would go on forever. Not in order to keep having grandiose ideas like that of founding a world-class Shakespearean festival in the middle of the Utah desert (and then bringing that dream to fruition in a big, Tony- and Emmy-award-winning way), but just to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":844,"featured_media":49338,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_piecal_is_event":false,"_piecal_start_date":"","_piecal_end_date":"","_piecal_is_allday":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[43,36],"tags":[3629],"class_list":["post-49337","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-in_memoriam","category-theatre","tag-fred-c-adams"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/fred_adams_onstage.jpeg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-06-04 14:48:21","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49337","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/844"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=49337"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49337\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":49341,"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49337\/revisions\/49341"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/49338"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=49337"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=49337"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=49337"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}