Assistant to the President

SHERMAN ADAMS, 53, governor of New Hampshire.

Family & Early Years: Born in East Dover, Vt., descended through his father (a grocery owner) from the Adamses of Quincy, Sherman went through the grades and high school in Providence, R.I., graduated from Dartmouth in 1920, after an interruption (in 1918) for a stretch in the Marine Corps.

Business Career: Started as a lumberjack with the Black River Lumber Co. in south Vermont, advanced to logging foreman, moved up to company treasurer in 1921. As treasurer, he trimmed the budget so effectively that he was grabbed off by the parent company, the Parker-Young Co. of Lincoln. N.H.; rose to be general manager.

Political Career: Entered politics in 1940, was elected to the New Hampshire house of representatives from Lincoln, a normally Democratic area, re-elected two years later. A pro-Dewey delegate to the Republican National Convention in 1944. Elected to Congress in 1944 from New Hampshire's Second District, in 1945 joined 30 House "Young Republicans" in proclaiming independence of Old Guard G.O.P. leadership; voted as an internationalist in foreign affairs, as a moderate conservative in economics and labor. Defeated for G.O.P. nomination for governor in 1946, nominated and elected in 1948 and 1950. Cut the state's administrative departments from 83 to 43. In 1951 was one of six G.O.P. governors to urge publicly Eisenhower's nomination for President; used his political influence to help Ike carry the crucial New Hampshire primary against Taft. After Chicago, Ike chose Adams as his personal "chief of staff" for the campaign.

Personality: Lean and wiry (5 ft. 8 in., 145 Ibs.), caustic and witty, brusque Yankee. Married in 1923 to Rachel White, who regularly packed his lunches while he was governor, once repaid him for morning grouchiness by filling his sandwiches with laundry soap. On another occasion, Adams objected to Rachel's driving the family car to morning-coffee sessions with neighboring housewives, padlocked the garage door. His wife entered the garage through a side door, rocked the car back & forth until she pushed the front doors off their hinges. The Adamses have three daughters, a son and three grandchildren. Views his new job not so much as troubleshooting (principal occupation of Harry Truman's Assistant to the President, John Steelman) as coordinating White House business.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.