John Leonard Adams was born on January 5, 1954 in Omaha, Nebraska to Leonard and Mary Adams. From an early age John expressed himself artistically, in many materials and forms. He drew pictures of his surroundings and of imaginary worlds. He painted (without numbers) and his school art projects bore the mark of a creative exuberance. A realistic clay elephant sculpted when he was five looks ready to charge, or to dance.
As he grew, he added artistic accomplishments. Over the years, photography joined painting, and poetry sprang from prose. John’s family, which in 1955 grew to include his sister Liz, moved frequently as a consequence of Leonard’s job with an architectural firm. Many of John’s developmental years were spent overseas, where he found inspiration and unique subject material to capture on paper or canvas.
John’s deepest gift was music, and it was the talent that most defined him. At the age of ten, sequestered at home in Brazil with a tropical illness, he taught himself to play the guitar in a matter of weeks. Soon performing publicly, by his early teens he was identified as a musician: the junior high school rock band he formed in Hong Kong was written up in the local newspaper.
John played many instruments, but what drew people to him was his singing voice, pure and clear and evocative. Friends, bandmates, and acquaintances from all the ages of his life speak of the magic of listening to John sing, how he could bring a room full of people to a standstill with his voice. Even as the ravages of mental illness set in, and the harshness of his life took a great physical toll, John continued to play music, often busking in the Pike Place Market or on the streets of Seattle, his talent sustained and sustaining.
Signs of the schizophrenia that would ultimately claim him began to surface in his late teens, but were dismissible as teenage angst, or an artistic temperament, or a developmental phase. Also possessed of a profound intellect, John graduated from Evergreen State College in 1976 with a degree in math and physics. He talked of being a university level math professor, and in his sketch pads theorems were worked out alongside drawings.
By his early twenties, his mental illness was undeniable. His family devoted themselves to caring for him, but John disappeared for long stretches of time, hitchhiking around the country, reappearing much the worse for wear, staying with his family until he regained some health, then disappearing again. These cycles continued, his condition deteriorating, until he disappeared from his family for the last time shortly before his 39th birthday.
John’s parents searched for him until their respective deaths. His sister took up the search, hampered as her parents had been by privacy and confidentiality laws and by the vastness of the space into which someone can disappear. Seventeen years after John disappeared, Liz learned his fate. She also learned that at the end of his life, on the last day of his life, he was seen carrying a guitar.
By his early twenties, his mental illness was undeniable. His family devoted themselves to caring for him, but John disappeared for long stretches of time, hitchhiking around the country, reappearing much the worse for wear, staying with his family until he regained some health, then disappearing again. These cycles continued, his condition deteriorating, until he disappeared from his family for the last time shortly before his 39th birthday.
John’s parents searched for him until their respective deaths. His sister took up the search, hampered as her parents had been by privacy and confidentiality laws and by the vastness of the space into which someone can disappear. Seventeen years after John disappeared, Liz learned his fate. She also learned that at the end of his life, on the last day of his life, he was seen carrying a guitar.
John's family saved numerous recordings of his music. Listen to John's version of Bob Dylan's "Boots of Spanish Leather":