Neysa Adams, pioneering civic and community leader, scientist, and teacher, has died at 104
She joined the Philadelphia United Fund volunteer speakers bureau in 1963, became active with several committees, and organized many community fundraising campaigns.
Neysa Adams, 104, of Philadelphia, 1971 chair of the local United Fund women’s committee, former president of the Rebecca Gratz Club, onetime vice president of the women’s council for the Federation of Jewish Agencies, former associate trustee at the University of Pennsylvania, scientist, high school teacher, investment adviser, and philanthropist, died Friday, June 26, of heart disease at the Hearth at Drexel.
Born and reared in Philadelphia, Mrs. Adams graduated from Olney High School and lived over the years in East Oak Lane, Germantown, and Elkins Park. She earned a degree in biochemistry with honors at Penn, did scientific research for a time, and taught English and history for two years at Philadelphia High School for Girls.
Smart, friendly, and energetic, she joined the Philadelphia United Fund volunteer speakers bureau in 1963, became active with the fund’s public relations committee, schools committee, and women’s committee, and organized many community fundraising campaigns. In 1971, she told The Inquirer she had a “deep feeling for community work.”
Mrs. Adams also served on the board at what is now Penn’s School of Social Policy and Practice and was active with the Emergency Aid of Pennsylvania Foundation, the National Conference on Social Welfare, and state and federal women’s advisory commissions. In 2003, then-Gov. Ed Rendell recognized her as a Distinguished Daughter of Pennsylvania for her “outstanding service and contributions to the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.”
As a philanthropist, Mrs. Adams and her husband, Arlin, were co-chairs of Penn’s Harrison Society for fundraising recognition, and they established, among other endowments, the Arlin & Neysa Adams Lectureship and the Neysa and Arlin Adams Prize for excellence in prelaw studies at Temple University. Her husband died in 2015, and she donated his papers to the archives at Penn Carey Law School in 2017 and later funded its Arlin M. Adams Lecture in Law, Religion, and the First Amendment.
“Everything good in my life came from him,” Mrs. Adams said in a 2024 online profile by the Hearth at Drexel.
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She also established the Neysa Adams’ Library Fund at Reform Congregation Keneseth Israel in Elkins Park. Friends called Mrs. Adams “wonderful,” “outstanding,” and “one of life’s brightest lights” in tributes.
One friend sad: “Neysa was one of the kind.”
Neysa Norma Cristol was born Aug. 7, 1921. She met Arlin Adams in high school, and they married in 1942 while he was on leave from the Navy. They had daughters Carol, Judy, and Jane. Her daughter Jane died in 2017.
Mrs. Adams and her husband, a state secretary of public welfare and longtime federal judge, traveled the world, mostly through his work, and she met a queen, a pope, several U.S. presidents, and other international notables. “Her resilience, intellectual curiosity, and dedication to serving others stand as a testament to a life well lived,” friends at the Hearth at Drexel said in 2024.
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She was active at Keneseth Israel, enjoyed cooking, and was an avid reader. She also worked as an investment adviser.
She was featured on 6abc TV last August on her 104th birthday and said: “Get those things that make you happy. Enjoy them while you can.”
Her daughter Carol said: “She was outgoing and had lots of friends. It seemed like she knew everyone in Philadelphia.”
In addition to her daughters, Mrs. Adams is survived by four grandchildren, one great-grandson, and other relatives. A sister and a brother died earlier.
A celebration of her life is to be at 11 a.m. Friday, Aug. 7, at Reform Congregation Keneseth Israel, 8339 Old York Rd., Elkins Park, Pa. 19027.
Donations in her name may be made to the University of Pennsylvania, Box 71332, Philadelphia, Pa. 19176; and Susquehanna University, 514 University Ave., Selinsgrove, Pa. 17870.
