1995_adams | Woodward HOF

Mark Adams Inducted 1995 - Class of 1947

Professional accomplishments

Thirty five years of experience in education including stints as:

* Headmaster, American International School of Cape Town, South Africa

* Principal

* Director of curriculum

* Adjunct professor

* Program innovator, Dade County Public Schools

* District superintendent, Sarasota County Public Schools

* Classroom teacher, Washington Local Schools and Sarasota County Schools

* Vice chairman of school board, Adams Local School District, Ohio

* Leader of the gifted program

* Lecturer

* Peace Corps director, Liberia, West Africa

* Civil rights consultant, South Florida School Desegregation Center

Personal achievements

* Penned three currently unpublished novels

* Writes and illustrates children's books

* Professional storyteller

* Sculptor

* Amateur matador

* White-faced clown and carnival worker

* FSTA chaplain

* Doctorate of Education. University of Miami, Coral Gables. Florida. 1970

* Master of Education, University of Toledo, 1957

* Bachelor of Education, University of Toledo, 1954

Greatest crossroad

"Returning from a basketball game, Woodward's team stopped al a restaurant in rural Ohio, The owner said 'Negroes' had to eat in the kitchen. We were ready to leave, but Chuck Allen noted it was the only place open and persuaded us to stay. As a first generation Pole, I suddenly realized I could simply change my name and accent to halt discrimination -- Chuck couldn’t. This incident was so burned into my psyche that in the days of Little Rock and Governor Faubus, I took a step in changing the nation's mentality of racial intolerance by being the principal of the first school desegregated in Florida."

Family ties

* Married to Judith Gilberson since 1983

* Five children from previous marriage

* Ten grandchildren