Richard ‘Dick’ Dean Adams, Maryland banker and nonprofit leader, dies

Dan Belson, Baltimore Sun
·3 min read

Richard “Dick” Dean Adams, who served in leadership roles for numerous Baltimore-area professional groups and nonprofits, died April 2 at his Severna Park home of complications from quadriplegia caused by an earlier injury. The Charles Village native was 78.

A banker by trade, Mr. Adams invested much of his spare time leading myriad charitable organizations, a dedication that his wife, Lynda Adams, said was “like a hobby” to him.

Among the groups he helped lead were the United Methodist Church’s Board of Childcare, as well as that group’s Kelso Home for Girls, a Towson orphanage. He served on both boards for over a quarter of a century, including stints as chairman and president.

Mr. Adams was born in Baltimore to Richard Adams, a salesman who was once a vaudeville musician, and Frances Adams, a licensed practical nurse. He grew up in Charles Village, though he lived in Florida for a part of his adolescence.

Mr. Adams returned to the Baltimore area after graduating from Miami’s Archbishop Curley High School, later graduating from the University of Baltimore in 1973 with a bachelor’s in finance. As a young adult in the mid-1960s, he briefly served as a private in the Army National Guard and was deployed to Kentucky, where he was stationed to assist in receiving the bodies of service members who were killed in the Vietnam War.

While working at Provident Savings Bank in 1965, Mr. Adams met the former Lynda Bernhardt, whom he married the following year. He went on to spend over four decades in the banking industry, working at several institutions including Merrill Lynch and Bank of America, and serving or leading professional organizations like the American Institute of Banking and the Baltimore Estate Planning Council.

Related Articles

But out of what his wife described as his “extracurricular activities,” Mr. Adams centered a great deal of importance on his leadership roles at charitable groups.

He was also involved in the boards of the McDaniel College’s board of trustees, Maryland Special Olympics, the Leukemia Society of America’s Maryland chapter, and the University of Maryland Medical Center Foundation, as well as the hospital’s Marlene and Stewart Greenebaum Comprehensive Cancer Center.

Mr. Adams and his wife moved in 1983 to Severna Park, where they raised two children and remained for the rest of his life.

Outside his career and involvement with professional groups and nonprofits, Mr. Adams was an avid birder, participating in the Anne Arundel Bird Club and taking his family on birding trips, his daughter, Claire Aubel, said.

Mr. Adams also read “ferociously,” and loved watching British television, Ms. Adams said, also noting her husband was a Civil War buff who would travel to battle sites. He enjoyed music, as well as musicals — he was a big fan of Rodgers and Hammerstein’s “The King and I,” Ms. Aubel said.

Funeral services for Mr. Adams were held April 12 at Barranco Severna Park Funeral Home & Cremation Care.

In addition to his wife and daughter, Mr. Adams is survived by a son, Thomas Adams, of Severna Park; a son-in-law, Erik Aubel, of Severna Park; and six grandchildren.