Thurman Adams Jr. honored as leader in farm education

Educators, farmers, family and legislators recently gathered at the University of Delaware research farm in Georgetown to dedicate the facility to the late Sen. Thurman G. Adams Jr. of Bridgeville, an alumnus who advocated for farming and for Delaware agriculture throughout a 37-year career in the state Senate.

Adams, a 1950 graduate of the agriculture education program, was remembered by Secretary of Agriculture Ed Kee as a lifelong champion of Delaware farmers, embracing the research and technologies developed at the university.

“I know his education added dimension, perspective, maturity and insights he valued the rest of his life,” Kee said. “He understood the mission of the landgrant was to solve problems and create innovations that relate to the people.”

Recruited for the school’s agriculture program from Bridgeville High School his senior year,  Adams was a member of the first lacrosse team at the University of Delaware. Many recalled that as a senator, he sought funding and resources for research and technologies developed at the research center.

The university’s Sussex County cooperative educational facility and laboratories, the Carvel Research and Education Center, are located on the newly named Thurman Adams Jr. Agricultural Research Farm. The research center provides education in areas such as commercial crop production, animal sciences, farm management, commercial horticulture and community development.

Carvel Director Mark Isaacs said he worked with Adams from the time he came to the facility in 1991 until Adams’ death in 2009, and he was frequently contacted by the legislator.

“He wanted to make sure Delaware agriculture was the best in the country,” Isaacs said. “Sen. Adams was committed to making sure that the substation had all the resources it needed to address the agricultural needs of Delaware.”

Former Agriculture and Education Center Director George Chalupska recalled a statesman who advocated for the needs of the university.

“Whatever we asked him to do, he would look into it and get it done,” Chalupska said.

Attorney General Beau Biden and U.S. Rep. John Carney also attended the dedication, remembering Adams, the longest-serving state senator in Delaware history, as a dynamic personality and formidable statesman representing lower Delaware agriculture.

“He meant so much to our state. He was one of those larger-than-life characters you meet…” Carney said. “He was Sussex County. He was a farmer. He was the judicial nominating committee. He was the department of agriculture. He had a heart this big [arms outstretched] full of gold, and I was ‘a good young boy.’”

The Thurman Adams Agricultural Research Farm is at 16483 County Seat Highway in Georgetown.