Richard Barlow Adams
        


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Richard Barlow Adams 
 

Richard Barlow Adams is the author of The Parting: A Story of West Point on the Eve of the Civil Warand Eben Kruge: How "A Christmas Carol" Came to be Written, a story about Charles Dickens at the age of thirty, and what inspired him to write the Christmas classic. Both books are recipients of a Clarion ForeWord "Five Star" review, and he is currently writing Song Be: A Story of Body, Mind, and Soul, about protagonist Dick Fox, a Vietnam veteran and successful architect. The story is told in flashback from present day Denver, when the framework of Fox's life is undone by what his wife finds in his Army field jacket, stored with innocuous memorabilia in an old footlocker...an object that unearths long-buried memories of the 1968 Tet Offensive, his involvement in the Battle of Song Be, and his time at Rollingwood Sanitarium.

Rich Adams received his appointment to join the West Point Class of 1967 from Texas congressman, Homer Thornberry, and he is the first of three brothers to graduate from West Point. In late 1967, six months after graduation, he deployed to Vietnam as an artillery forward observer for D Company, 1/506th Infantry, 101st Airborne Division (of WWII "Band of Brothers" fame).

Upon returning to the States, he became an army aviator and transferred to the Army Corps of Engineers. After seven years in the military, he and his family returned to Austin, Texas, where he began a career as a consulting civil/environmental engineer. Eventually moving to Baton Rouge, Louisiana, he formed, grew, and later sold an environmental engineering consulting company. Since then, he has worked as a sole practitioner forensics consultant, while pursuing a second career in writing. When not consulting or writing, he enjoys lecturing, giving book talks, traveling the world, golf, hiking, and biking. During the winter season, he enjoys skiing, having been a former ski instructor for Beaver Creek Ski School in the Vail Valley.

Adams has been active in West Point alumni affairs and the many activities of his class, and has served as adjunct assistant professor for West Point's Department of Geography and Environmental Engineering, and as adjunct professor to the School of Engineering and Applied Science for Southern Methodist University.

Adams and his wife reside in Miramar (Sandestin), Florida. They have two married children, several grandchildren, and are active members of the Destin United Methodist Church. 

Cadet, West Point 2nd Lt., Vietnam, 1968 Ski instructor, Beaver Creek, CO