Obituary: Adams, Dolor Napoleon
Age 95
ADAMS, Dolor Napoleon
Outdoorsman, engineer, story-teller, family man.
Born October 9, 1916, in North Adams, Massachusetts, Dolor died January 4, 2012, in Spokane, Washington, of a heart attack, aged 95.
Dolor (Cy) Adams was the second of two children born to Napoleon and Anna Adams, immigrants from Quebec, in the Berkshires of western Massachusetts.
His stories about growing up hunting deer in the woods, swimming in the creeks, racing cars down Mount Greylock with his friends and going to elementary school in two languages, French and English, were regular bedtime entertainment for his fascinated children.
Dolor graduated from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, New York, in 1939, with a B.S.
in Chemical Engineering.
As a member of the U.S. Army Air Force, he served as an officer in the Chemical Warfare Division until his separation from the Army in 1946 with the rank of Major.
He was transferred from base to base in the United States, working on munitions development and developing remarkable skill in playing poker.
He regularly sent money home to his mother, without telling her he had won the money at cards, until he decided he had won enough off men who could no longer afford to lose and he stopped playing completely.
Soon after that, his mother contacted him and asked him sadly, “My son, you are no longer sending any money home.
Have you taken up gambling?”
He never did tell us how he answered that.
After the war, Dolor moved to Cleveland, Ohio, at the invitation of an Army friend, and began his career in the Graphic Arts industry with Harris Corporation.
He was as good a chemical engineer filing 17 patents and becoming the research and development lab manager.
He met and married Anne Parnin in 1953 and lived happily with her and their daughters until Anne’s death in 1985.
His limited vision, following a stroke in 1969, made it impossible for him to live alone, so he was invited to choose a home in upstate New York with his daughter Anne, or a home in Spokane with his daughter Mary Ellen.
Never afraid of change, he said, “I’ve lived my whole life in the East, so let’s try Washington State.
“
From 1985 until his death, he reveled in his place in his family’s home and in the fellowship of his friends at St. John Vianney Church.
He saw his eight grandchildren grow to adulthood: Adam, Tyler, and Abby in Spokane, and Will, Nan, Nora, Russ and James in New York.
He continued to be grateful for what he could do, even as it became less and less.
Dolor regretted his failing memory particularly and recently lamented his inability to remember what he had eaten for lunch.
When prompted with the opening line of one of his favorite poems, however, he effortlessly recited, as he had done so often over the dinner table decades before for the entertainment of his family, the entire stanza.
A memorial mass will be held February 3, 2012, at 11:00 AM, at St. John Vianney Catholic Church, 503 N. Walnut Rd, Spokane Valley, WA.
Community Cremation Service Spokane Valley
13127 E. Sprague, Spokane Valley, WA 99216 509-926-2020
Online guestbook: www.CommunityCremationService.com