John was born April 25, 1929, in Boston, the son of Jane Edmunds Adams and John Durrell Adams ’27.
He graduated from Phillips Exeter in 1947. At Princeton he majored in history and belonged to Colonial. He left college before graduation to work at the Museum of Modern Art Film Library, the Cinematheque de Belgique, and the Cinematheque Française. As reported in The State, his interest in ethnographic film ultimately led him to anthropology, and he earned a Ph.D. in social relations from Harvard in 1970.
Research among Native Americans on the west coast of Canada formed the backbone of his book, The Gitksan Potlatch. He taught at Fordham University and served as curator of the Northwest Coast Collections at the National Museum of Man in Ottawa, Canada.
John then accepted a position at the University of South Carolina, where he taught anthropology for 30 years. He and his wife, Dr. Alice Kasakoff Adams, compiled a unique body of research documenting 300 years of American family migration dating back to the Mayflower landing.
John died July 14, 2013. He is survived by Alice; his daughter, Kaya Adams Steele; sister Jane Adams; two nieces; and a nephew.