John R. Adams, A Special Person

Sometimes a really special person passes through and makes the world a different and better place. Jack Adams was such a person. We were deeply saddened by the recent news that Jack Adams had succumbed to heart failure after quadruple bypass surgery. It is particularly difficult news to comprehend because what never failed Jack was his heart.

Jack is often referred to as the Father of Compliance. The title is appropriate - and earned. Jack did more for our profession than anyone I can think of. It is no accident or coincidence that Jack was the first recipient of the ABA Compliance Executive Committee's Distinguished Service Award. In many ways, the award was designed because of him - and for him. Each of us who has received the award since then feel privileged to be counted in with Jack.

Jack was in compliance on the ground floor, and took compliance all the way up to the Executive Suites and the Board Room. Jack was the moving force behind much of what we take for granted today.

He led the compliance committee from back-row to front burner status at ABA. He knew the issues, he knew what compliance managers needed, and he knew how to reach and influence management. He was a very savvy organization person.

Jack helped to start ABA's compliance schools. He served on the schools' Advisory Board, and chaired the board for several years, steering the compliance schools through some important growth and changes.

Jack was the first Planning Committee Chairman of the National Regulatory Compliance Conference. His leadership and ideas brought together a conference that packed the house and became the talk of compliance-town.

And while working for his bank and for ABA, Jack also worked actively for his state banking association, teaching compliance skills and helping to organize compliance activities for PBA.

Jack was fun and funny. There was never a dull moment around him. If Jack was there, there was fun to be had while the work got done. Jack could rattle off joke after joke without repeating himself and without saying anything that would or could offend anyone. That's an art that few people master.

Jack also knew precisely when and precisely how to get serious. That's how he accomplished so much. He saw ahead, way down the road. In fact, Jack was the first person I remember to see the importance of risk analysis in compliance management. Back in the Twentieth Century (around 1990, to be more precise) Jack had already put risk management concepts to use in his bank. He also conducted one of the first valid cost-benefit analysis of compliance requirements and got people thinking hard about costs.

Many of the brightest and newest ideas came from his head. But Jack was much more than a forward-thinker. Jack also knew how to deliver. He understood organizations and how the people in them think and work.

With all these praises, the most precious and wonderful thing I can say about Jack is that he was a friend. Whenever one needed him, he was there for you. And he brought his art of humor to any situation, knowing just when and how to help you laugh at yourself and put a problem in perspective. Then he got down to business.

I learned a lot from Jack. Many people did. He leaves a huge legacy in the world of compliance and banking. Those of us who knew him personally cherish that friendship. Those who didn't know him personally benefit each day from what Jack did. We are all in a better place because of him. We will miss him - and take him with us.

Copyright © 2002 Compliance Action. Originally appeared in Compliance Action, Vol. 7, No. 7, 6/02