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Date: 6/15/2022
EAST LONGMEADOW – As is tradition, the 2022 East Longmeadow 4th of July Parade will feature a grand marshal.
Carl Ohlin, chair of the 4th of July Parade Grand Marshal Committee, previously told Reminder Publishing that the grand marshal is someone who has benefitted the community through their actions. Each member of the committee nominates an individual for the prestigious role. The whole committee then considers each nominee and weighs their contributions to the town.
This year, resident Philip Adams was selected from the three finalists.
"I was very humbled,” Adams said. “I thought maybe they’d confused me with someone else.” Reflecting on his drive to volunteer in the town, Adams said, “It’s probably giving back what they gave to me.”
Growing Up in EL
Adams’s family moved to East Longmeadow in 1951, when he was 7 years old. He went to elementary and middle school in East Longmeadow and attended Cathedral High School in Springfield for his secondary education.
After growing up in East Longmeadow, Adams stayed in the town and attended college close to home at Springfield Technical Community College (STCC), Western New England College – now Western New England University (WNEU) and American International College (AIC).
It is the small-town way of life that has kept Adams enamored with East Longmeadow. “Everybody knew everybody,” he said, describing the community as “simple” and close-knit.”
“East Longmeadow’s been our home forever.” Adams said of the family he raised in town with his wife, Linda Adams. He said he purchased a house in the town before he was even married because he knew he would want to raise his family there.
Adams said he knew the town was changing when the bridge over the railroad tracks near the town line on North Main Street was demolished in 1995. “It was a symbol that East Longmeadow was growing and wasn’t a small town anymore.” Now, he said, “We’re still a small community, but we’re spread out.”
In 1969, after four years in the Marine Corps, Adams became a member of the East Longmeadow Police Department, where he rose through the ranks until becoming the Hampden Police Chief in 1996.
During Adams’s time in the Police Department, he worked to build a relationship with families and small business owners throughout the community. He said small businesses are “the unsung heroes of our community.” When Adams was seeking contributions for the D.A.R.E. program, he said he knocked on the door of every business in East Longmeadow and each one gave.
“That’s how friendly the community is,” Adams said.
Volunteering
During his professional career, Adams found ways to go above and beyond. He spent 15 years as the executive director of the Western Massachusetts Chiefs of Police Association, an organization of 103 police departments. He was also the supervisor of attendance for East Longmeadow Public Schools for nearly two decades, from 1977 to 1996.
“I got to know the kids,” he said, adding that he tried to “be a person to them, instead of just a cop.”
Adams has spent much of his time volunteering to work with kids. “They’re the future,” he said. He was the founder and chair of the East Longmeadow Friends of D.A.R.E. Committee and the chair of its golf tournament. He coached the East Longmeadow Recreation Department’s boys’ baseball and girls’ softball teams.
Adams served on the search committees for a new middle school principal and fire chief and was also a member of the East Longmeadow Charter Review Committee and the Twin Meadows Federal Credit Union Board of Directors.
Recently, Adams has, “put a hold” on his volunteer work to focus on his battle against lung cancer, a disease he attributes to exposure to Agent Orange in Vietnam. Agent Orange is a defoliant used during the Vietnam War and widely linked to health issues.
“I’d like to do more,” he said. For now, though, he is focusing on spending time with his children and grandchildren.