Arlon "Bud" Adams

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Arlon (“Bud”) Adams passed away peacefully on July 20, 2023. He was born in Bottineau, ND on April 26, 1931 to Ruth McFall Adams and Arlon Taylor Adams. When Bud was two years old his father died and the family moved to Amherst, MA. Bud’s mother Ruth raised him, his sister Anne, brother Dickie, and later little sister Ruthie in Western MA.

Bud was a graduate of Phillips Exeter Academy, and Harvard University. He attained an MS degree from Brooklyn Polytechnic and a PhD from the University of Michigan.

He served in the US Navy as an officer on a destroyer in the Mediterranean from 1953 to 1955. He married Judith Schettler in 1958. He was a professor of Electrical Engineering at Syracuse University from 1963 to 1995. He published many scientific journal articles and co-authored with Jay Lee a textbook on Electromagnetics. He was a fellow member of the IEEE.

Bud read widely. He was especially knowledgeable in many areas of history. During high school and undergraduate years Bud was an accomplished athlete in wrestling and cross-country running. He was an avid tennis and squash player and enjoyed golf in retirement.

Bud used sabbaticals to travel within the US and abroad. He spent a year in Berkeley, a year in France, and a semester in Yugoslavia. With wife Judy, he raised four children, Bob, Kate, Mag, and Dave. The family spent summers at a cottage on Millsite Lake in northern NY where he swam to the island every day. He had eclectic tastes in music from Bach to ragtime and he loved to sing all the old songs that his mother taught him. He was a good listener and liked to tell stories, such as how he chopped wood at age 7 to heat the house, how he fell out of a tall pine tree, how he worked as a lumberjack in Oregon with an ax as big as he was, and swashbuckling tales of his experience in the Navy. He was also a seasoned and accomplished shaggy dog storyteller. Bud was a faithful member of Grace Church for 58 years. In retirement he worked in Jail Ministry.

His family includes his wife Judy of 64 years, their children Robert, Kate (and former wife Letie Reyna), Margarethe (and former husband Boris Stremlin), and David (and wife Alice); grandchildren Jennifer, Sofia, Henry, Rae, Elijah, and Eleanor; great- grandchildren Ian, and Tristan; and his brother-in-law Dan Schettler.

A memorial service celebrating Bud’s life will be offered at 10AM on Tuesday, August 1 at Grace Episcopal Church, 819 Madison St in Syracuse. A reception will follow.
www.sisskindfuneralservice.com