Burton Elias Ezra Adams

MAJ in 23rd Headquarters Co

ASN#340850

Born 1914 in SD, Died 2012

Other residence(s): San Leandro, CA; Oakland, CA; Carmel, CA; Alameda, CA

United States Army, European Theatre of Operations

Occupation before the war: medical resident (or doctor?)

College education before the war: UC Berkeley; Stanford Medical School

Source: Roster of 23d HQ officers, from family of Oscar Seale; Pine Camp, 18 Dec 1945; photo from 1936 Berkeley yearbook

Burton Adams was born on November 9, 1914 in Bristol, SD, the oldest of four children. His father, Burton Abel Adams, was a doctor who had been born in Canada; Burton Jr.'s middle names were a legacy from his grandfather, Ezra Elihu Adams.

The family relocated to California sometime after Burton Sr. accepted the position of Assistant Superintendent at Fairmount Hospital in San Leandro, CA in 1929. (In 1939 he would move to San Diego when he was selected as Superintendent of San Diego County Hospital.) Burton Jr. studied premed at UC Berkeley and was also active in the UC Reserves. In 1936, the year he graduated from Berkeley as a member of Phi Beta Kappa, he was also named outstanding student colonel.

Burton went on to study medicine at Stanford for the next four years. After graduation, he worked as a resident at Highland Hospital in Oakland CA under the direction of the Chief of Surgery, Dr. Sumner Everingham, and fell in love with Dr. Everingham's daughter, Anne.

He registered for the draft on October 16, 1940, when he was still at Highland Hospital, and then served as a resident at Bellevue Hospital in New York until January 1, 1942. After returning to California, he married Anne Everingham on February 22, 1942. Anne, a California native, had graduated from Juillard with honors in 1941, and had taken a position as a harpist with the San Francisco Symphony fresh out of school. (Anne's mother, grandmother, and great-grandmother had all been concert pianists!)

Burton joined the Army Medical Corps early in 1942 and was stationed in Monterey County; the young couple took up residence in Carmel.

At some point Burton was assigned to the 23rd Headquarters Company of the Ghost Army, and saw service in Europe with the unit. His brother, Robert, also a doctor, joined the Navy and served in the South Pacific—he was attached to the medical corps that landed with the marines at Guadalcanal.

After Burton's discharge from the Army at Pine Camp in late 1945, where he'd earned the rank of MAJ, he took up his surgical practice in California.

Burton and Anne would go on to have four daughters: Carolyn, Patricia, Nancy, and Valerie. In addition to his surgical practice, Burton served as Chief of Staff at Eden Hospital in the 1950s and worked as a pediatric surgeon at the Children's Hospital of the East Bay. In the 1960s he served a term as chief of medical staff there.

At the 1954 convention of the California Medical Association, Burton spoke about pioneering surgical procedures that were saving the lives of children born with congenital hernias.

Meanwhile, Anne became the principal harpist of the San Francisco Symphony in 1951 and principal harpist for the San Francisco Opera in 1952. She was also a member of the faculty at Mills College (in addition to teaching harp privately). She played on the radio and later on television with Carmen Dragon, and performed with the Little Symphony Orchestra of San Francisco on weekly television concerts. She also performed, recorded, and toured as a soloist and with chamber groups.

Burton was a huge supporter of his wife's career. He was a life member of the American Harp Society and a founding member of the American Harp Society Foundation. He helped Anne to mentor and support many harp students and opened his home to host many harpists of his generation whenever they were in town. He also commissioned works for harp by several composers. In 1990, he established the Anne Adams Awards, a scholarship program in honor of his wife; he funded this program every year until 2003, and the Anne Adams Awards continue today. In 2000 he was included in Harp Column's list of the most influential people in the harp world.

Burton Adams died on November 30, 2012, at the age of 98. Anne outlived him by a year, dying on December 9, 2013.

Their family demonstrated an interesting combination of medical and musical skills. Daughter Carolyn became a pianist and daughter Patricia became the principal harpist with the Tucson Symphony (and married a doctor who was also a bass player with the Symphony). Daughter Nancy was a saxophonist and became a doctor, and daughter Valerie became a nurse and a professor of nursing.