Maynard Adams

In 1971, he was awarded the University's Thomas Jefferson Award; in 1992, the University established the E.M. Adams distinguished professorship, and in 1998 the Program in the Humanities and Human Values at the University created the annual E.M. Adams Lecture in Humanities and Human Values.

Adams received his undergraduate degree and a master's degree in philosophy from the University of Richmond. While there, he was pastor of several churches. He received a divinity degree from Colgate Rochester and his doctorate in philosophy from Harvard in 1948.

After a year of teaching at the University of Ohio in Athens, Adams joined the faculty of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 1948 and served as chairman of the philosophy department from 1960 to 1965 and as faculty chairman from 1976 to 1979. During the Vietnam War era, he helped launch the Curriculum in Peace, War and Defense. He also helped create the Program in Humanities and Human Values and served as chair of the Program's Advisory Board for its first seven years. By the time of his death, he was Kenan Professor of Philosophy, Emeritus.

Elie Maynard Adams (December 29, 1919 – November 17, 2003) was an American philosopher of value and meaning devoted to understanding and criticizing the philosophical foundations of modern Western culture and developing an intellectual vision that makes sense of the human condition.

Adams was born December 29, 1919, in Clarkton, Halifax County, Virginia, to Wade Hampton Adams and Bessie Calloway Adams. He grew up on a tobacco farm and attended a one-room school.