Frank William Adams was born in 1892 in Charleston, South Carolina. He also lived in Toledo, Ohio, and in New Haven. He graduated from New Haven High School (now Hillhouse High School) in 1912, then attended Yale for a year before transferring to Dartmouth College. He graduated from Dartmouth in 1916. He married Sadie Rice Adams in 1925 and earned a bachelor of laws degree from Howard Law School the same year, beginning a long legal career.
Immediately after graduating from Howard, he served as clerk of the Municipal Court of Washington, DC, and then as Assistant United States Attorney from 1929 to 1933. He then joined the law firm of Cobb, Howard, and Haynes. He was a member of the Masons and Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity.
Adams died in Washington, DC in 1978.
Image citation: Yale College Class of 1916 class book, Yale University Library