Pine Log

Issue date: 11/15/07 Section: News

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Dr. Jasper E. Adams Jr., 65, chairman of the SFA Department of Mathematics and Statistics since 1990, died Friday in Houston after a battle with cancer.

He had been a member of the SFA faculty since 1965, when he was named instructor of mathematics.

Dr. Deborah Pace, associate professor of mathematics and assistant chair of the department, described Adams as a "servant leader" of his department. "His greatest strength," she said, was "exhibited in his love for the faculty and his ability to inspire and empower them to achieve their personal goals."

Shane Allen, a former student of Adams' who now works in the University's purchasing department, recalled his student days in the early 1980s. After withdrawing twice from Math 220 (Statistics,) Allen said in Adams he finally found a stats teacher he could understand and relate to.

In a letter to The Pine Log, Allen reminisced about his former professor: "I remember on the opening day of class he came in and said, 'I'll give you a gun with a million chambers in it, and there is only one bullet in the chamber. If you spin the chamber and it doesn't fire, then you can travel anywhere you want to in the world instantly. Would you spin it?' "

Allen said Adams applied statistics to situations the students could relate to, such as whether or not they would take a chance on riding an elevator in the new Math/Nursing Building that had already fallen several times. "He was joking, of course," Allen said.

"I'll miss Dr. Adams," Allen said. "We were never close or friends, but he still knew my name from a single class back in the '80s. He made a difference and left the world a better place."

A strong academic figure, Adams was an effective advocate for his department on academic committees and the Faculty Senate. He will be remembered by the College of Sciences and Mathematics for his leadership and vision in mathematics and science education.

His untiring efforts toward the quality preparation and professional development of public school teachers and his contributions to the mathematics community in Texas was recently acknowledged at the University of Texas at Austin by the Charles A. Dana Center.

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