Barry B. Adams

Barry Banfield Adams passed away peacefully at home in Brooktondale on December 31, 2024, in the company of his daughters and son-in-law. He was 89 years old.

Barry was the oldest of three children born to Joseph Norman Adams and Mary Merz Adams in West Roxbury, MA. After graduating from Boston Latin School and Boston College, he attended the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, and received his PhD in 1963. In 1976, he received the Boston College Presidential Bicentennial award for personal dedication, excellence, and service.

At Chapel Hill, Barry met Margaret (Molly) Bradshaw, and they were married in 1962. After completing his degree in 1963, they moved from Chapel Hill to the Ithaca area, sight unseen, in their VW Beetle. Barry began teaching English at Cornell University, while Molly dedicated her energies to family and community life.

Barry spent 38 years at Cornell, where his academic focus was Medieval and Renaissance drama. At various times, he served as Vice Provost of Undergraduate Education, English Department Chair, and Chair of the University Faculty Library Board. He was also the first director of the Religious Studies program, which he helped establish at Cornell in 1992 by coordinating relevant classes from multiple departments. He retired with Emeritus status in 2000. Barry continued to serve Cornell into retirement in many ways, from volunteering at New Student Orientation to facilitating oral history interviews and videos for the Cornell archive. 

In retirement, Barry had a second act in the community. He served as chair of the Brooktondale Community Center board and president of the Funeral Consumers Alliance of the Finger Lakes. He was a weekly volunteer driver for Gadabout for over 10 years, and volunteered with the Red Cross for over 20 years. Always a prolific blood donor, when he could no longer donate blood he became the “juice and cookies guy” and a courier who drove the blood to Rochester once a week. Barry also supported and engaged with many of Molly’s volunteer passions, including Friends of Treman State Park and Historic Ithaca. He was recognized for outstanding volunteer contributions by the New York State Office for the Aging in 2018.

Barry was a regular attendee at local theater events, concerts, the Glimmerglass Opera, and “Live from the Met” opera performances. Ithaca opera fans originally carpooled to Syracuse to watch the Met livestreams, but at one point Barry approached the Ithaca Regal Cinema to ask about local showings. After many months of discussion and a letter-writing campaign, the cinema agreed to one trial showing. They filled two theaters – and “The Met: Live in HD” became a regular offering in Ithaca that continues to this day. 

Barry was especially active with Lifelong, both as a student and an instructor in their continuing education program. The classes he developed were popular and wide ranging, on topics related to opera, the history of words and the English language, Shakespeare, and Gilbert and Sullivan. Even in his final illness he was planning a new class for the spring semester. 

Barry was an earnest and thoughtful listener and conversationalist. He was unpretentious and non-judgmental. He enjoyed seeing others do well and find meaning in their lives. Visits to see his children and grandchildren (sometimes far afield) were fun for everyone, provided he had access to a book and a quiet corner. He loved his cats and watching birds at his feeders. Barry lived a long and full life, and will be dearly missed.

Barry was predeceased by his parents, his wife Molly (2014), his brother Joseph (Jay) Adams, Molly’s brother Bob Bradshaw, and Kelly Ellison Pugh.

Barry is survived by his two daughters: Emily Adams (Paulus Dominicus) of Brooktondale and Katie Adams, of Port Orchard, Washington. He is also survived by 5 grandchildren: Alan Pugh (wife Erica Jordan), Mara Pugh (partner Sam Larson), Eleanor Miller (partner Wes Hance), Theodor Miller, and Alice Miller. Additional survivors include his sister Mary Adams, Molly’s sister Phyllis Rounds (Roland), his sisters-in-law Maeve Adams and Barbara Likely (Skip), former sons-in-law Graham Pugh and Mark Miller, close friend Donna Sokol, and nieces and nephews Nick Adams, Chris Adams, Jennifer Adams Byrnes, Zachary Adams, Debby Huleatt, Betty Bloomer, Amy Sheridan, Patricia Kassis, and Peter Bradshaw, and their spouses and children.

A funeral mass will be held on Friday January 10th, at 1 pm, at Anabel Taylor Chapel at Cornell, with a reception to follow. Donations in Barry’s memory can be made to any charity close to your heart. Many of Barry’s favorite charities, and links for donations, can be found at the family website, 488valley.com.