Obituary: Dr. Alan Herbert Adamson, Professor Emeritus

It is with sadness that the Department of History has learned of the passing of Dr. Alan H. Adamson, a distinguished historian whose engaging lectures encouraged a passion for history with his students, and won the respect of both students and faculty alike.  Our condolences to his family and friends. 

From www.legacy.com:
Distinguished Professor Emeritus of History, Concordia University, died on July 5, 2015 at his home in Montreal. Born in 1919 in Winnipeg into the large Adamson clan, Alan was educated at the University of Manitoba and Birkbeck College, University of London. He lived a rich, productive and varied life. In the early 1940s, he was executive assistant to John Grierson, then Commissioner of the National Film Board. He enlisted in the army, where he was pulled out of basic training to put his film-making skills to use directing combat training films. After VE Day he became director of research and a lecturer at the Workers' Education Association in Toronto, and later assistant director of Voters' Research Institute in New York and San Francisco. Before joining the history department at Sir George Williams University (which later became Concordia), he held teaching posts at the Institute of Modern Languages in Prague and at Saskatoon Teachers' College, during which tenure he was a founding member of the NDP. A historian by training, Alan's passionate belief in the importance of the liberal arts was reflected in the breadth of his teaching and publications. His first book, Sugar Without Slaves, was a pioneering work on the society and political economy of British Guiana; his last, Mr. Charlotte Brontë, was a biography of Arthur Bell Nicholls. Like his historian friends George Rudé and Eric Hobsbawm, he was a proponent of "history from below," focusing on the role of common people. A compassionate and principled man, Alan never complained when a medical accident rendered him blind several years ago. He was a fine and original historian who was admired by his students and friends for his intelligence, fairness, appreciation of literature and music, and his lively and humorous conversation. He was also an excellent athlete, a near scratch golfer and a serious gardener. He is survived by Judy, his beloved wife and soul mate of nearly 50 years, and his much loved son Nicholas (Alexandra Clark), his twin grandchildren Andrew and Bronwyn, whom he adored, his brother Patrick, sister Virginia Immerglück, and brother-in-law Steven Coull, many nieces and nephews, and an extended family of friends. He was predeceased by his brothers Christopher and Robert.