Gerald Adams

Gerald D. Adams

Gerald D. Adams, prize winning urban planning writer for the Hearst-owned San Francisco Examiner and the San Francisco Chronicle, has died at the age of 92. Mr. Adams resided at San Francisco Towers for the past 14 years.
Mr. Adams is survived by his wife, Anna Finan Adams; a sister, Susan C. Adams of New York City; two brothers, Brian A. Adams of Santa Rosa and Timothy R. Adams of Madrid, Spain. He was the son of the late Leon D. Adams, noted wine writer and founder of the Wine Institute.
From the 1970's until his retirement from the Chronicle in 2005, Mr. Adams reported extensively on matters involving land use, the environment, real estate development and architecture.
Among changes to San Francisco's cityscape reported by Mr. Adams were events that led to the transformation of the city's obsolete railroad yards into Mission Bay's development into a medical and high-tech center; the boom in downtown skyscraper development during the 1980's and 1990's, conversion of the San Francisco Presidio from military to peacetime use as a national park; transformation of the city's waterfront following the demolition of the Embarcadero Freeway and creation of the cultural and recreation complex known as Yerba Buena Center from what had been Skid Road and warehouse district in the then-tawdry South of Market District.
As a young reporter working for the Sunday magazines of the Examiner, Mr. Adams wrote profiles of a number of civic leaders. Among those were the late State Senator Eugene McAteer; conservationist Nicholas Roosevelt; Pebble Beach entrepreneur Samuel F. B. Morse; and Muir Beach farmer George Wheelwright whose legacy of land was instrumental in the founding of the Golden Gate National Recreation Area.
In recognition of articles written during his half-century-long newspaper career, Mr. Adams received various awards for journalistic achievement. They include prizes from the Associated Press, the San Francisco Press Club, the Hearst Newspapers Corporation, the Society of Professional Journalists of Northern California, the Association of Catholic Journalists. In recognition of articles dealing with architecture, the environment and urban planning, the American Academy in Rome, awarded him its Rome Prize, entailing a year-long fellowship in environmental design. He was also named a fellow of the Salzburg Seminar in American Studies.
On his retirement from fulltime employment in 1998, the San Francisco Board of Supervisors cited Mr. Adams for "his priceless gift to San Franciscans in bringing to public attention the city's major environmental and urban planning controversies with informed and thorough reports in the San Francisco Examiner and California Tomorrow. In an even-handed way, he tells us of crucial planning decisions being made in the neighborhoods, in the Financial District and on the waterfront – decisions in which the public has the right to participate."
Early in his career, Mr. Adams also reported for the San Jose Mercury, the Marin Independent-Journal and the San Francisco News. When the Hearst Corporation bought the San Francisco Chronicle, he wound up his career as a part time reporter for the San Francisco Chronicle.
Besides his newspaper work, Mr. Adams contributed articles to Planning Magazine, City Magazine, Cry California, the Sierra Club Magazine and Urban Land magazine. In addition, he authored A Guide to San Francisco Neighborhoods, which was published by the Hearst Corporation in 1980.
Mr. Adams was a graduate of Tamalpais High School in Mill Valley and the University of California at Berkeley.
Among Mr. Adams' affiliations were the Society of Professional Journalists, the Sausalito Yacht Club, the Commonwealth Club and the San Francisco Planning and Urban Research Assn.
No Funeral was held.
At Mr. Adams' request, it is suggested that anyone wishing to make a donation in his memory consider one of the following: the Sierra Club Legal Research Fund, the Leon D. Adams Research Scholarship Fund at the Department of Viticulture and Enology, University of California at Davis or the San Francisco Planning and Urban Research Assn.
For further information: Anna Adams, telephone (415) 447-5715; Susan Adams (212) 749-1123 or (616) 942-1566 or longtime colleague Larry D. Hatfield, (641)204-0158, 300 E. 13th St. #14, Pella, IA 50219.