John Stewart Adams

John Stewart Adams, whose enthusiasm for life’s adventures helped him excel whether he was solving technical challenges as an international computer expert, brewing beer, bicycling, skiing or scuba diving, died after a sudden illness on Jan. 16. He was 62.

John was born in Houston on July 14, 1958 to Anne Donchin and John A.S. Adams Sr. Although he didn’t graduate from high school, he was a National Merit Scholar and earned a bachelor’s degree in economics and management from Rice University in 1980.

As a teen-ager he joined Mensa, an international society for high-IQ individuals, and served on the board of Gulf Coast Mensa in the early 1980s. He later was national coordinator for the organization’s Ski and Scuba and London special interest groups.

John was a regular participant in the MS 150 Houston-Austin bike ride benefiting multiple sclerosis research.

He also was an original member of the Foam Rangers of Houston, a beer-brewing club that helped

raise the profile of Houston-based Saint Arnold and other craft breweries.

Professionally, John specialized in developing and managing systems to run on platforms created by the German software giant SAP. His 35-year career began in Houston overseeing the first three SAP projects at Schlumberger, the world’s largest oil field services company. He later worked in South Korea and Germany for the conglomerate Samsung. He was among technologists around the world who strove to avert what became known as the “Y2K Problem” – the danger that computers programmed in the 1900s would not adjust to dates in the 2000s. Work by John and others prevented a crisis that might have crippled a broad range of technology-dependent industries.

From 2000 to 2015, John was based in London, where he obtained dual citizenship as a Brit and worked as a lead SAP consultant to government agencies and private companies in Great Britain and elsewhere in Europe and Asia.

In 2010, he met Helena Cheng at the London Wine, Dining and Travel Club. They married four years later in New York.John returned to Houston with Helena in 2015, and then worked with the firm AnswerThink, which helps companies and organizations match SAP products to their operations.

John and Helena built their Inner Loop Houston house to the green building standards of Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED). The house – featuring solar panels, a rainwater irrigation system and other measures for environmental responsibility and energy efficiency – is one of the few private residences in Houston to attain LEED’s top Platinum rating.

John began scratching in the dirt as a teen-ager, earning the nickname “Farmer Adams,” and the new house provided him space for a backyard vegetable garden, whose bounties John and Helena generously shared with their neighbors.

Besides his wife, John leaves a sister, Joanne Adams of Burlington, Vermont; a brother, David Adams of Galveston; nieces Abigail Adams of Austin and Dr. Malaika Adams of Fort Worth; and a nephew, Zechariah Adams of Greenwich, Connecticut.

If you wish to remember John with a donation, please consider the MS 150 for the year 2021, of which John already registered: https://www.facebook.com/donate/3466005450121093/3466005523454419/

Acknowledging the pandemic, the family is postponing a memorial event until a later date when John’s friends and relatives can celebrate his life together.