We are saddened to learn of the Dec. 16 passing of Thomas Adams, a founding partner of the Wilton law firm Gregory & Adams. Almost one year ago, I enjoyed the privilege of a lively conversation with Mr. Adams in the conference room of the firm that bears his name. We spoke for an interview about the firm’s 50th anniversary and I was writing about the contributions the firm had made to life in Wilton.

Sharp minded and a great story-teller, it’s fair to say Mr. Adams charmed me. He told of what it was like to be lured to move to Connecticut to work with Julian Gregory, whose Wilton roots went deep. He spoke of his commitment to various causes in town and the love and admiration he had for his wife, who he said was more clever than he was. Wilton has lost a wonderful man, and we send our condolences to his family and the Gregory & Adams team.

Below is Adams’ obituary and beneath that is the Adams interview portion of the original story GOOD Morning Wilton published in January 2015.

—Heather Borden Herve

Thomas Adams, 86

Thomas Tilley Adams, attorney, died at home on Dec. 16, 2015 at 86 years of age. The cause of death was cancer. Born in Orchard Park, N.Y., on Oct. 9, 1929, to Floyd Tilley and Clara Potter Adams, he was preceded in death by his wife Virginia Smith Adams and is survived by his four children Julia Adams, Janet Adams, Claire Adams, and Douglas Adams, and three grandchildren, Andrew Jordan, Emmett Adams and Thomas Adams.

Thomas Adams graduated from the University of Buffalo in 1951, served as a Captain in the USAF in Korea from 1951 to 1953, and earned a JD from Cornell Law School in 1957. A member of both the New York and Connecticut Bars, he began his legal career in New York City with Davies, Hardy & Schenck from 1957 to 1963. He then became a founding principal of Gregory & Adams in Wilton, Conn., practicing there from 1963 to 2001, and was of counsel from 2002 until the time of his death. He was admitted to the U. S. Court of Appeals (2nd Circuit), and to the bar of the U.S. Supreme Court in 1962. He also lectured at Cornell University Law School and was adjunct Associate Professor of Law at Fordham University.

He helped shape the town of Wilton and Fairfield County, serving as chairman of the building committee for Wilton High School in 1966 and Town Attorney from 1966 to 1971. He served on many boards including the Five Town Foundation, the Wilton Library Association, the Union Trust Company, Norwalk Savings Society, Woodcock Nature Center, Silver Spring Country Club, and the Norwalk Hospital. He also served on a variety of trusts including Dana Fund International, Elizabeth Raymond Ambler Trust, S.T. Shoff Charitable Trust, and The Shoff Foundation.

Tom Adams was tirelessly active on behalf of the public good throughout his career. He was a staunch advocate for a more inclusive American civic life and for those less fortunate, both in the nation at large and the northeast region where he grew up, lived and practiced law, and he consistently dedicated time and resources, including pro bono legal support, to these goals. He was honored with the Distinguished Alumnus award from Cornell Law School, the Silver Beaver Award from the Boy Scouts of America, was admitted to the Apperson Society from the Lake George Land Conservancy, and was Phi Delta Phi.

Thomas Adams was a loving husband, father and family man, a warm and caring friend and counselor, and an energetic mentor to many young people over the years, including as a schoolteacher at Lake Shore Central School in Angola, N.Y., in 1953-4 and throughout his life thereafter. He enjoyed opera, the Adirondacks, golf, reading and discussing history and jurisprudence, the wit and wisdom of Oscar Wilde, and had a remarkable zest for life in general.

The family requests that donations be made to Wilton Library or the Black Watch Public Library of Ticonderoga, N.Y.

Big Corporate Law Firm with Small Town Heart Celebrates 50 Years in Wilton (Jan. 5, 2015)

According to name partner Thomas Adams, the tone of the firm can be traced back to its founder, Julian Gregory, who died in 2002.

“He had a good sense of humor, and was a native of this town–going back 200 years. But I can remember standing outside his office door with some other lawyers and we wanted to discuss something, and he’d say, ‘Well, if you’ve got a deck of cards, come in, we’ll play bridge!’”

Gregory recruited Adams from his New York City litigation practice, and enticed him to move to the wilds of Wilton to join him. Adams recounts an amazing story of being invited to Gregory’s family home on Belden Hill Rd..

“We were having a drink in the library. He had told me he’d spent the entire winter–half of it on his knees–restoring the house. He took it back to the original construction. I look down and I see carved in the hearthstone JG ’47. I said, ‘I see you put your initials in the hearthstone as a memento of your efforts.’ One of the few times I saw him swell up with family pride, he said, ‘No, I’m the ninth Julian Gregory to occupy this house. It was built in 1747.’”

Adams, at 85, is the respected and much beloved leader of the firm; he says Gregory would be proud of the firm today.

“He was a selectman, he was the town prosecutor back when Wilton had its own court. When I came in 1963 there were six lawyers. Not one of those lawyers is alive today, and every law firm that was functioning then is gone, and every law firm that was in Norwalk is gone. The only one left is this one, so I must have done something right.”

He says the nature of giving back that is so prevalent with whose who work at the firm is something that fits with the small town origins. It also explains his own service to Wilton.

“You feel the town is something you have to give back to because it gave you something,” Adams says. “I’m a small town boy from Western New York. One of the reasons I came to Wilton was it was similar to the town in which I was raised. I’m very, very fortunate the dice rolled that way. In 1963 Wilton only had a population of about 7,800. I had only been here two years, one Saturday morning the phone rings, it was the first selectman, Vinnie Tito. ‘Tomm-o! How would you like to be town counsel? Ed Rimer doesn’t want to do it anymore, he suggested I call you.’ There was no meeting the party chairman, this or that. It was a Saturday morning phone call. I did it for six years.”

He also chaired the High School Building Committee and was a trustee of the Wilton Library Association and Norwalk Hospital, as well as volunteered with many other civic and professional organizations.

Most of his practice now sees him as trustee for five larger, local foundations, including the Dana Foundation, the Ambler Trust and the Shoff Foundation.