Robert Matthews Adams was born in Buffalo, NY and raised in Barrington, RI. He lived in Port Washington, NY before retiring in Montecito. CA in 2004 before moving back to New York in 2018. He died on April 29, 2019 at age 77 after braving a nine-year battle with multiple cancers.
Living in the S.B. area was a dream-come-true to a man who visited decades prior. He and his wife Anita firs lived in Montecito Shore before purchasing a house in Birnam Wood Golf Club. Bob’s lifelong passions included competitive sailing and being on the open water, culminating in self-guided trips to Alaska. Bob was an avid downhill skier and traveled the world.
Bob graduated from the Mount Herman School in 1959, earned his B.A. from Brown University in 1963, served in the U.S. Army from 1963 to 1965, and then obtained his MBA from the Wharton School of Business in 1967. He began his career that year at Chase Manhattan Bank. In 1972 he joined Loeb Rhodes where he pioneered both the underwritten conversion of mutual savings institutions and sales of mortgage-backed bonds. He jumped to E.F. Hutton in 1977, overseeing transactions with financial institutions and the development of tax-exempt mortgage revenue bonds.
In 1984, Bob broke out on his own by founding Adams Cohen & Associates and Adams Cohen Securities. For ten years they converted banks from mutual ownership to stock ownership, serving as a sole underwriter for the majority of these deals. For the rest of his life he consulted and worked as a private investor in various companies.
Bob is survived by his wife Anita Cleva Adams; children Curtis Sedgwick Adams and Alessa Adams Haro; step-children Bryan Christian Cleva and Susannah Cleva Jungbluth; five grandchildren and step-grandchildren; and loyal dog Scout.
Please consider a donation in his name to the Multiple Myeloma Research Foundation.
