Carrying on her legacy

TIFFIN --- The life of Patricia L. "Pat" Adams is being reflected upon by the community of Heidelberg University and the city of Tiffin. On Feb. 10, 2023, Adams passed away, leaving those she inspired and positively impacted in mourning. Although she will be dearly missed, Heidelberg and the Adams family plan on carrying on Adams' legacy through Heidelberg's own Patricia Adams Lecture Series (PALS.) "Pat was the heart and soul of PALS, and she's the heart and soul of the Adams family too," said Susan McCafferty, the chair of the PALS Selection Committee and Pre-Law Advisor at Heidelberg. "She just had a vision, and was so adamant that it's for the students, and that was like her most important legacy. I can't believe she's gone." McCafferty, who has been involved with PALS for around 10 years, said of Adams, "she had a huge heart, she was just so open and warm, and welcoming." The Patricia Adams Lecture Series was launched at Heidelberg University in 2010, created and funded by The John and Patricia Adams Foundation, started by Pat and her husband. John is a 1958 Heidelberg alumnus and served on its Board of Trustees from 2007 to 2015. The goal of the series is to present exceptional female leaders from a broad spectrum of professional backgrounds, to inspire Heidelberg students by positively impacting their careers. "We have had women who've experienced PALS and left Heidelberg and started their own businesses—they've become entrepreneurs because of a speaker or two that they heard here at Heidelberg," said Ashley Helmstetter, chair of PALS logistics committee and assistant vice president for alumni engagement and HYPE Career Ready® and Placement. "All students have benefited from Patricia Adams Lecture Series in ways they've told us later." "We're kind of like her surrogate daughters," Helmstetter said of her and McCafferty in regard to Adams. Helmstetter has been actively working with PALS since it initially launched, and noted that she and McCafferty have become very close with the Adams family and admire their mission. "They're practically like family," McCafferty said, noting they have gotten to know not only the Adams family but their extended family and friends as well. "This program meant the world to her," Helmstetter said of Adams. "To be able to meet our students—she loved interacting with the students and getting to know them and hear their stories…The students became her family, everybody who met her became part of her family. Her family tree has grown and grown, and grown with biological children but also the branches that have expanded from Heidelberg." To carry on the legacy that Adams began, her daughter Sherri Adams will continue to work with PALS and take over the role of her mother to ensure the series can move forward and continue impacting those who experience it. "The Adams family is a very strong, very connected generation by generation of wonderful, wonderful people," Helmstetter said. "I believe that Pat's mission, her legacy and her wishes will continue on as they have over this last decade, almost 13 years." "Her words live inside us," McCafferty said of Adams. "She's part of us."