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L A U R E N C E J. A D A M S
1921–2008
Elected in 1988
“For exceptional engineering leadership in space vehicle systems.”
BY ALBERT WESTWOOD
LAURENCE J. ADAMS, former president and chief operating
officer of the Martin Marietta Corporation, was born in Madelia,
Minnesota, in 1921, and died on February 13, 2008, at the age
of 86. He was elected to the National Academy of Engineering
in 1988 for “exceptional engineering leadership in space vehicle
systems.”
Larry Adams’ choice of a career in aerospace was foreseen
when he left the farm on which he was born and joined the U.S.
Naval Reserve in 1942 to train as a pilot. He became an
outstanding aviator, and so was chosen to become one of the
first of the Navy’s pilots to fly nighttime submarine spotting
missions off the decks of the small aircraft carriers that served
as convoy escorts in the Atlantic. Fortunately, most of his later
career challenges were considerably less risky than landing a
Grumman Avenger onto the heaving deck of a relatively small
ship guided by just a few handheld torches.
After completing his active military service in 1946, Larry
learned that he could apply his service credits toward a degree
in aeronautical engineering at the University of Minnesota. This
he did, graduating with his bachelor’s degree in 1948. During
that time, he also met Marguerite “Peggy” Gaetz, the lady who
would later become his beloved wife for 56 years.
15
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16 MEMORIAL TRIBUTES
After graduation, Larry joined the Glen L. Martin Aircraft
Company in Baltimore, Maryland, as a stress analyst, and began
work on a variety of projects including the Matador/Mace
Guided Missile, the Viking Sounding Rocket, the Oriole Air-
to-Air Guided Missile, and a tactical bomber for the U.S. Air
Force. His capability for, and tenacity in, solving tough
engineering problems did not go unnoticed, and when the
company (by then the Martin Company) was awarded the
contract to build the Titan 1 Intercontinental Missile, and the
company decided to build it in Denver, Larry was invited to
transfer there as head of the stress analysis group. He later said
that he made the decision to accept this position “in about ten
milliseconds.”
Upon his arrival, he found that his first challenge was to
develop the technology to weld the strongest aluminum alloy
of that time, ST14 . . . which was generally considered to be
unweldable . . . and then to solve any problems likely to arise
when the now welded ten foot diameter test tank contracted
on being filled with liquid nitrogen or, later, liquid oxygen.
Many of the challenges Larry’s group had to overcome are
described in the book Raise Heaven and Earth (Simon and
Schuster, 1993) by William Harwood. They included, for
example, how to simulate the gravity force that the propellants
and tankage might be subjected to at the point of maximum
dynamic pressure as the rocket soars from the launch pad.
Harwood also describes some of the spectacular calamities that
befell his team when the tests they ran did not work out quite
as expected!
The next few years of Larry’s career read like the index to a
book on the U.S. space program. He quickly advanced from
program manager for the Titan II to technical director for the
Titan III, IIIA and IIIC space launch systems, and program
director for the Titan IIIM.
In 1965, Larry was promoted to director of engineering for
the Denver division of the company and, over the next few
years, was responsible for leading the teams that developed,
for example, the multiple docking adapter for NASA’s Skylab,
the Viking Mars Lander, and the engineering integration tasks
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LAURENCE J. ADAMS 17
for the latter’s incredibly successful mission. Other promotions
followed, including vice president for special projects, for
operations, and then general manager of the Denver division.
In the latter position, he was responsible not only for various
ongoing Titan III missions, but also for developing the
foundation technologies for a variety of emerging strategic
missile and military information systems. Along with others,
Larry exemplified the Martin culture of always accepting
personal responsibility for things that, on occasion, went wrong
. . . and then for promptly fixing them to achieve “mission
success.”
Larry’s quiet managerial style, incredible technical and
organizational competence, and string of successful major
projects, made him the logical choice to become the next
president of the aerospace division of the company, which, by
1976, had become the Martin Marietta Corporation, a diversified,
multibillion dollar conglomerate, with major businesses in
aerospace, cement, aggregates, dyestuffs, metals and, by virtue
of its management responsibilities for the Oak Ridge National
Laboratories, nuclear energy. So Larry transferred from Denver
to the headquarters of the corporation, in Bethesda, Maryland,
and assumed responsibility for the increasingly diverse
operations of the aerospace company, including new and
expanded research and development programs in
microelectronics, materials, propulsion, guidance and control,
software, robotics, and a variety of other advanced
technologies.
By 1982, Larry had become executive vice president and
COO of the corporation. But in August of that year, the Bendix
Corporation, led by Bill Agee, decided to make an offer to
acquire Martin Marietta. The corporation’s battle to fight off
Bendix is legendary in the business world. Larry became a
member of the eight person team that the chairman of Martin
Marietta, Tom Pownall, then put together to defend the
corporation’s independence. Larry’s primary responsibility,
however, was to keep the company running smoothly and
efficiently, while the rest of Pownall’s “A-Team,” focused first
on defense, and then on counterattacking Bendix using an
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18 MEMORIAL TRIBUTES
approach now widely known as the Pac Man strategy which,
in essence, involves endeavoring to take over the company that
is trying to take you over.
Clearly, this requires having the resources to do so . . . and
Larry was then called in to persuade certain financial houses
that this would be a good investment. William Harwood
describes this situation beautifully as follows: “If you were
casting in Hollywood, you couldn’t find a more convincing
model of a corporate chief operating officer than the silver-
haired, square-jawed Adams. His straight-arrow, deliberate
approach conveyed the confidence the bankers were looking
for; obviously, there was a firm hand on the day- to- day control
of Martin Marietta’s businesses.”
After the Bendix confrontation, Larry was promoted to
president and COO of the corporation and, working with
Pownall and other senior staff, helped the company to divest
most of its commercial operations, and to refocus its energy on
its roots in aerospace, electronics and information systems,
thereby setting in place the basis for its current reputation as a
world leader in these areas of technology.
1n 1986, Larry Adams retired from Martin Marietta, and
began a very active second career as a technical and management
consultant . . . and philanthropist.
His first consulting assignment was a portent of things to
come . . . he was appointed to the committee to determine the
cause of the Challenger disaster and to redesign the boosters
used in the Space Shuttle program. He remarked later that this
was the most difficult task with which he had ever been
involved. However, over the next twenty years, as a member
of the Air Force Scientific Advisory Board, he served on panels
dealing with such issues as space power, hypersonic vehicles,
and electronic combat systems. He also served on National
Research Council committees concerned with space policy and
transportation systems. He was chair of the Committee on Small
Spacecraft Technology and of the Committee on the Global
Positioning Satellite system . . . the committee that recommended
elimination of some of the security features that degraded non-
military uses . . . a recommendation that has permitted the now
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LAURENCE J. ADAMS 19
widespread use of GPS-based automobile navigation systems.
He also was a member of the NASA Advisory Council and
Space Station Advisory Committee, and of the U.S. Information
Agency’s committee to review the design of its worldwide
shortwave radio broadcasting system. And the list goes on
and on.
Over the course of his long career, Larry received numerous
honors. Among them, he was elected president and Fellow of
the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, and
was a three time recipient of NASA’s Public Service Medal for
his contributions to the Viking Mars Lander Program, the Titan
Centaur Launch Vehicle, and the Titan III program. He served
as Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the National Security
Industrial Association, of the National Conference on the
Strategic Management of Research and Development, and of
the Challenger Center for Space Science Education.
Larry was very much aware of the difficulties that
developmentally disabled persons have in finding meaningful
work in a supportive environment. This concern led to his fifteen
year involvement with the work of Western Maryland College
in this area, and specifically with the graduate program on
Human Service Management that focuses on the developmentally
disabled. Larry became a trustee of the college (now known as
McDaniel College) in 1989, and in 1992 the College established
the Laurence J. Adams Chair in Special Education for graduate
students. In 1993, he was the very proud recipient of an honorary
Doctorate in Humane Letters from the college.
A devoted family man, Larry was the father of two sons and
three daughters. Wife Peggy says that, despite his many other
responsibilities, he was never too tired to listen and to offer
positive advice. In his later years, he considered his seven
grandchildren to be his “greatest jewels.” And, for relaxation,
he was for many years an enthusiastic supporter of the Baltimore
Orioles.
When speaking with friends about Larry Adams, the word
“gentleman” always enters the conversation, for Larry was a
gentleman in every positive connotation of that word. He was
also a great leader . . . and to be such, others must be willing to
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20 MEMORIAL TRIBUTES
follow. For those of us so blessed, to follow Larry was a pleasure,
a privilege, and an adventure.
Larry Adams is survived by his wife, Marguerite “Peggy”
Adams of Potomac, Maryland; five children, Stephen Adams
of Aurora, Colorado; Michael Adams of Potomac, Maryland;
Mary Louis Sterge of Malvern, Pennsylvania; Teresa Hayes of
Collegeville, Pennsylvania; Susan Adams of Gaithersburg,
Maryland; and seven grandchildren.
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