Class of 1945 grad loves to come home
Author: Communications
Posted on Oct 4, 2010
Category: UNB Saint John
He was one of only three people who registered from the Class of 1945, but Cape Cod, Mass., resident Don Adamson figured he'd still have a good time at the University of New Brunwick's 225th anniversary celebration and fall homecoming.
While a jazz band played under a white-topped tent on the lawn at UNB, Adamson, 87, quaffed a beer and joked that he can recall delivering The Daily Gleaner newspapers for 35 cents, but had to get a better job.
The retired electrical engineer wasn't long in putting his UNB degree to good use when he left New Brunswick for the United States in 1946 and ended up running his own consulting firm in Boston.
Engineers Inc. specialized in hospital design work. He retired in 1988 and sold his company.
Out of the Navy, I went to the States. I had a lot of family down there. My people come from southern New Brunswick and they were back and forth from Boston all the time, so I had relatives galore down there," he said.
His late wife, Claire Rideout, was an honours graduate in science and biology in 1950 and they always came back for reunions and to visit family here.
"I don't think we've missed a one (reunion). I even came up to this one and there's only three others registered to come anyway," he said. "I was all over this area as a kid. I was born in Gagetown. My dad had a lumber mill there. The crash of 1929 ruined him, so we came here (to Fredericton) from 1932 to 1945."
Read the full story at the Daily Gleaner.