Wilbur Louis Adams (1884-1937)

Wilbur Adams was born on October 23, 1884 in Georgetown, Delaware, the son of William and Sarah Adams. He graduated from Georgetown High School and began his college career at Delaware College in Newark, but in 1902 he joined the class of 1905 at Dickinson College. He was a member of the Belles Lettres Society and Phi Kappa Psi fraternity; however, he withdrew in 1904 to attend law school at the University of Pennsylvania where he graduated in 1907.

Returning to Georgetown, Adams took his bar examination and eventually opened law offices in Wilmington. He later embarked upon a political career as well. A Democrat in a mostly Republican state, in 1924 he ran unsuccessfully for state Attorney General. Adams had more luck in 1932 as a candidate for a seat in the Seventy-third United States Congress. The only Democrat elected in a state-wide race, he won by a margin of only 2,857 votes. He served his term but was not a candidate for re-election in 1934, instead running in the election for a United States Senate seat, again unsuccessfully.

After the loss he resumed the practice of law, this time in his hometown of Georgetown, in 1934. He was also the acting postmaster for the town in 1937. Wilbur Louis Adams died in Lewes, Delaware on December 4, 1937 at the age of 53.

Image Citation: Dickinson Alumnus vol. 10, no. 2 (December 1932): 13.