WELLS – Rev. Patricia P. “Pat” Adams, 94, formerly of Granite Point, died early Friday morning, Nov. 27, 2020 at Gosnell Memorial Hospice House in Scarborough.

Pat was born Anne Patricia Parker in Fitchburg, Mass. on Dec. 19, 1925, to Verne C. and Dorothy (Sutton) Parker. She and her older brother, Jack, enjoyed a loving childhood, despite the Depression – “no one really had much, so we were all in the same boat”. She learned a bit about kindness from her parents who gave butter and sugar sandwiches to men in need who appeared at their back door from time to time.

While in high school during WWII, she volunteered as a plane spotter, working two-hour shifts on a farm on the outskirts of town. She suspected she and her friends didn’t take it anywhere near as seriously as the Civilian Corps might have liked.

She loved summer vacations with her family at Silver Bay on Lake George, N.Y., especially when she worked as an “EMP” with other teenage friends. Pat was a graduate of Fitchburg High School, class of ’43.

Off she went to college, working toward her bachelor’s degree at the University of New Hampshire in Durham, 1947. Like many college towns, Durham was a quiet place during the war; most of the men were away training and fighting in the war. She joined Alpha Xi Delta where with a crew of sorority sisters, they pooled their money to buy an old car to expand their adventures. She made many lifelong friends during her time there, including her future husband, Bill.

Pat and Bill married at the New Ipswich, N.H. Congregational Church on a hot and sunny Saturday, Sept. 3, 1949. Married life began in Nashua, N.H. before settling in Manchester. Together she and Bill raised three kids, Deborah, Steve and Sally.

While raising her family Pat was busy lending a hand in her community. She was a board member and past president of the Eliot Hospital Junior Association in her 30s, a former director of the Manchester YWCA Board of Directors, a volunteer with the Manchester Children’s Orphanage, and was active at her church. Always a fan of manners and punctuality, her kids recall that arriving “on time” as a family to be Sunday morning greeters at First Congregational Church really meant showing up at least 10 minutes early (which she considered barely on time).

The ‘60s and ‘70s were filled with kids and pets, music lessons, weekly trips to the library, ballroom dance lessons and choir practice, skiing and hiking, summer vacations at the family camp and at Wallis Sands in Rye and annual Thanksgivings with the cousins (“best gravy you ever made!”). All the while, Pat and Bill made time for monthly bridge group, yearly Boys Club balls and New Year’s Eve parties on Mayflower Drive. In 1968, Pat and Bill braved three weeks with the kids in the family station wagon on a cross-country trip. She may have almost gotten them lost before they got out of New England, but what a time they had.

Pat was a believer in healthy meals, exercise, dark chocolate, laughing at her own jokes and bare feet. She took to jogging the neighborhood at 6 a.m. She was a lifelong skier and swimmer, and a not-so-great golfer. Pat was known for her rhyming poetry creations and her pie crusts, having the best husband and kids (in her opinion), and thought nothing of laying out in her sleeping bag on the back deck in February to start on her summer tan.

The kids grew up and headed off to find their way. There was more time for Pat and Bill to travel with friends and explore their options. In 1981, this led to an unexpected and much-loved retirement house on the coast of Maine at Granite Point.

A few years after Bill died unexpectedly, Pat enrolled in Bangor Theological School before transferring to Boston University School of Theology. She earned a master’s in Divinity there in 1989. Pat was called to the First Congregational Church in Kennebunkport, serving from 1989 to 1995. It was simply “the best job I ever had”. She had found a second family and treasured them all beyond words. Her retirement coincided with her 70th birthday, so that summer she invited family and friends to a weekend celebration at the Claremont Hotel in Southwest Harbor.

Pat swam 2-3 mornings a week at Bodywise at UNE, volunteered as a chaplain at Webber Hospital (SMHC) and joined the Board of Directors of the Arundel Cemetery in Kennebunkport. She loved to travel – overseas with Elderhostel, with the neighborhood “girls” on Maine adventures and with her favorite traveler, Joan Lovett.

Living at Granite Point was one of her greatest joys. She filled her time with Golden Retrievers, beach walks, Alex’ Pizza, visiting friends and family, piano playing, and falling asleep to the sounds of the ocean. She always remarked how lucky she was.

In addition to her husband, Bill, she is predeceased by her brother, Rev. John W. Parker and her sister-in-law, Barbara L. Adams.

Pat is survived by her son, Stephen P. Adams of Wells, two daughters, Rev. Deborah L. Adams of Shoreline, Wash., Rusty Adams of Kennebunk; two grandchildren, Hans Adams-Christensen and wife Renee of Washington, Kathryn Cain and husband Jayson of Washington; six great-grandchildren, Ava, Sadie, Tytus, Sidney, Cassie and Joshua.

A memorial service and celebration of life will be scheduled for the Summer of 2021 when it is safe once again to gather.

We thank Lynda Bryan for years of loving Pat – dog walking, Jeopardy watching, and sharing meals.

To share a memory or leave a message of condolence, please visit Pat’s Book of Memories Page at http://www.bibberfuneral.com.

Arrangements are in care of Bibber Memorial Chapel, 67 Summer St., Kennebunk, ME 04043.

Should friends choose, memorial donations in her name are welcome at your local library or

animal shelter.



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