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Chaplain John Maxwell Adams
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As close as I’ve gotten to the Presidency
The college chaplain, Dr. John Maxwell Adams and my father, Alfonso Baez-Fonseca were classmates at McCormick Theological Seminary, graduating in 1926. I became involved in the student religious program at Mac and always said that knowing Chaplain Adams was as close as I have gotten to the Presidency as his daughter, Joan, married the Honorable Walter Mondale, Senator, Vice-President and Ambassador to Japan.
Samuel Baez
“Are you soap or satin?”
Rev. Maxwell Adams was chaplain during the two years I was at Mac and I spent a lot of time in his office seeking counsel. He never failed to have great answers for my many questions and, long before it became a popular saying, he was the first person to introduce me to the concept: “What Would Jesus Do?” When I asked him about ‘hanging out’ with people who were up to things that I wasn’t, (when I wasn’t with them) he said, “It depends upon if you are going to be like soap or satin. If satin gets soiled, it damages the very fibers of it. But if soap gets around dirt, it just washes it off.” He also was very instrumental in my becoming a Presbyterian; because of my own beliefs, what I learned in the classes I took from him and through his counseling. Along with my dad, he helped me to grow into an adult with a very open mind.
Alice Presbrey Williamson
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