A Little Boy From Christianburg
Now a Top U.S. Career Professional
by Jeff Trotman
Guyana Journal, September, 2007
He was the first Linden born person to represent Guyana at regional cricket. Now almost 40 years later, Vincent Adams has achieved another unique feat. On 12 July 2007, he was sworn in as a Senior Executive Service (SES) official of the United States Federal Government, a corps of the highest level of career professionals in the US Federal Government.
According to a release: “The SES Corps of professionals run the day to day operations of the Government and form the bridge between the Government's workforce and the political appointees who come and go with changes in the Administration.
“With this new appointment, Dr. Adams is now an Office Director within the Department of Energy's multi-billion dollar per year Environmental Management's massive cleanup of the nation's legacy of wastes generated from its building and operation of the nationwide nuclear weapons complex.
“He reports to the Deputy Assistant Secretary of Energy for Engineering and Technology and heads the development of new science and technologies that will enhance and accelerate the cleanup of the ground water and soils; and protect some of the largest groundwater reservoirs and rivers that form the lifeline of the US, from further contamination and risk to the nation's economy, health and the environment.”
It is amazing how the folk wisdom of a people can prophetically spot greatness in a child. The first time I happened to set my eyes on Vincent Adams, I was nine years old, or so, attending Sunday Church service at the United Mission Church, which was held, at the time, in a weather-beaten, wooden building on Jordan Street at the foot of Wismar Hill. Vincent caught my attention simply because he was just a few years older than me – but much bigger in size – going out to field in real whites with grown men in an organized cricket match on the cricket field across the street.
The church service ended as was customary around noon and as I headed for home, passing the sprinkling of spectators – mainly supporters of the Silver Stars Cricket Team – who stood on the roadside, I heard someone say, “that little boy for Adams will be great.”
I came into personal contact with Vincent some years later when he was cricket captain at the Mackenzie High School and I was selected to try out for an opening batsman position on the team for a challenge match against Central High from Georgetown.
During the four weeks of practice, Vincent ingrained in me a basic fundamental of batting, “push forward, push forward”, which I still use today as a graying middle aged man in Third Division cricket here in St. Vincent and the Grenadines, much to the ire of young fast bowlers who feel insulted by what they perceive as my precocious disregard for their so-called pace, and they resort to verbally threaten me to “explode a ball into” my chest!
I can never forget my delight in sharing a century second wicket stand with Vincent against a Christianburg Eleven that included the volatile fast bowler “Fiery” Johnson (God bless the dead) in a practice match in preparation for the game against Central High School.
Vincent had won the toss and elected to bat. When my senior opening partner Remington Williams went early with the score in the teens, Vincent came to the crease and proceeded to pulverize the pace attack with booming off drives, cover drives and square drives off the front foot and vicious pulls. I was an impressionable spectator at the other end, getting by with prodigious forward defensive prods and leg glances on that low bouncing Christianburg track. Vincent was long gone for 88 when I was the sixth man out for 26. I can never forget that match. It was my debut in cricket for Mackenzie High School and it is dated by the fact that on the same day Roy Fredericks scored one of the two centuries he made in a Shell Shield match that was played between Guyana and Barbados at that time.
I cannot remember much of the match against Central High School, which was played at the Mackenzie Sports Club Ground, except that the opposing captain, Keith Austin, who at the time was captain of the Guyana BAT team, hit a century comprising mainly lofted boundaries – which gave me a new insight into batting since the youth coach of the Linden community, who was employed by the Canadian Bauxite Company (DEMBA), Basil Butcher, whom we reverently called ‘Suh B’, constantly exhorted us to hit the ball along the carpet.
Vincent also played soccer and table tennis with some degree of skill. I recall him playing first back for Mackenzie High School in 1966 when our games master, Joseph Bakker took us on a sports tour to Skeldon. Many top table tennis players in Linden in the late 60s and early 70s can attest to their frustration of getting past Vincent’s persistent pushes on the table tennis board. In table tennis, Vincent was not spectacular – he just got the ball back on the table.
As I reminisce on those growing up days, I find it amazing that Vincent, whose family hails from Dalgin on the Demerara River and whose father started a ferry service in Linden many years ago – which has become a landmark organ in the body of the Linden community, ‘Adams Boatlanding’ – did not make his mark as one of the leading swimmers at the annual swimming meet of the Mackenzie High School.
Vincent went on to represent the Guyana BAT team. Upon his return from the tournament in Barbados, he was the first person I heard speak of the immaculate timing of Lawrence Rowe, “this Jamaican youngster, who whistled the tune ‘Three Blind Mice’ while he batted, and who seemed to have all the time in the world to play his strokes. He also spoke of a strapping Barbadian lad, who was “lightening fast!”
I can recall the many arguments between cricket enthusiasts in the Linden community in the late sixties as to whether Michael Irving or Vincent Adams was the best schoolboy batsman of the time. However, cricket lost Michael to religion early – Michael did not finish his school days playing cricket. And while ‘Suh B’ did a good job of nursing many young cricketers with talent – Paul Dunbar, Wayne Stuger, Compton London, Lenny Fraser, Vibert Wright, Gordon ‘Bull’ Waddle, Vibert Benjimen, Vibert ‘Fisher’ Rogers, ‘Gunner’ Melville, Monty Weekes, Compton Parkison, Robert Calvern and yours truly, just to name a few, only Vincent made it to the national youth and senior teams in the decade of the sixties up to the mid seventies.
Oh yes! Vincent is the only one who cherished the dream that we all had of rubbing shoulders in the dressing room and on the green sward with the personages of Steve Comacho, Roy Fredericks, Alvin Kalicharran, Clive Lloyd, Milton Pydana, Winston English, Rex Ramnarase and many other titans of that romantic period of Guyana’s cricketing history.
Then suddenly he seemed to have disappeared off the face of Linden. His name was mentioned from time to time in Case Cup matches – First Division Cricket – for the Georgetown based Demerara Cricket Club; then not at all.
We did not know that fate was shaping this son of Linden for his true greatness. Few Lindenites are aware of that automobile accident which forced Vincent to give up his first love and to concentrate on academic pursuit.
As history would have it, he was among the first class of Engineers graduating from the University of Guyana (UG) in 1973. Ironically, he did not do the expected thing of a Linden youth: that of returning to work with the bauxite industry and bask in the adulation and privilege of being an eligible young bachelor staffman.
It is said that armed with his Bachelor's degree in Civil & Public Health Engineering, Vincent gained employment with the Guyana Water Authority, where he spent two years as the Guyana government's counterpart Engineer on a United Nations Development Programme project, conducting feasibility studies for the design and construction of sewerage, water supply and storm water systems for Guyana.
During his second two years with the Water Authority, Vincent became the lead Engineer responsible for the planning, design and construction of all water wells in Guyana, east of the Demerara River.
He subsequently migrated to the US where he obtained two MS degrees in Groundwater Hydrology (Ohio University) and Geological & Petroleum Engineering (University of Missouri) and a PhD in Environmental Engineering (University of Tennessee).
He has served in leadership roles on various national and international technical committees including the Chairmanship of the Southern Section of The Air & Waste Management Association, governing the states of Alabama, Georgia, Mississippi and Tennessee – a pre-eminent professional organization with a membership of over 9,000 environmental professionals in 65 countries.
His impressive curriculum vitae includes leading a US technical team to Germany as well as serving as Co-Chair for the international conference on developing technologies and strategies for the safe recycle and reuse of radioactive materials. He reportedly has the unique distinction of being an expert in contaminant transport and behavior in all three media (air, water and soil) of the environment.
His professional experience over the past 26 years has been dedicated to solving problems in environmental cleanup and technology development, working for the Department of Energy and AMOCO Oil Company.
He spent 5 years at AMOCO as a Petroleum Reservoir Engineer in which he conducted pioneering work in the use of carbon dioxide flooding for the tertiary recovery of oil – a technology that has now become state of the art for oil recovery within the petroleum industry.
He spent the past 21 years with the Department of Energy in heading many highly visible and critical, but sometimes very controversial projects including: transforming nuclear weapons technologies into applications for medicines and medical procedures; curtailing greenhouse gases; fuel cell development to reduce dependency on fossil energy; and improvement to petroleum refining efficiency; developing the science and technologies for safe underground storage of wastes from nuclear power plants; designing, constructing and operating the only incinerator in the US licensed to treat any form and types of wastes; and developing the science and technologies for homeland security to protect commerce across ports and highways from terrorists attacks.
Dr. Adams also developed the theory and the set of equations that describe the operation and performance of the internationally renowned, state of the art Ionizing Wet Scrubber, used for cleaning effluents from stack emissions.
In spite of his many career achievements, Dr. Adams regards his biggest contribution to mankind is being Chairman of the Linden Fund. He declares that he is duty bound through this voluntary service to “pay back” to the community and country which raised and molded him into what he is today. In this regard, Dr. Adams is driven by the passion of his beliefs that no child should be denied an education, health care, food, or shelter, because of the lack of means.
Although he feels his greatest disappointment is “being robbed the opportunity to play cricket for the West Indies by that accident”, Dr. Adams is satisfied with the course his life has taken.
He is, however, committed to doing his best to provide avenues for the younger generation of Lindenites to achieve self actualization for he claims, “if I did it, you bet they can.”
He reportedly admitted that he became very emotional at the swearing in ceremony when he realized how far “this little boy from the alleys of Christianburg had come” and how much he owed the little “village” of Linden that raised him – this is also testimony to his modesty. Vincent has never been one to put on ‘airs’.
“It is now my turn and the Linden Fund's turn to do our part and be that “village” for raising the generations for the future of Linden and Guyana,” Dr. Adams said with resolve.
As Chairman of the Linden Fund, USA, Dr. Adams is playing a key leadership role in revitalizing the Linden community. The Linden Fund has provided educational scholarships for Linden students to attend secondary schools and the University of Guyana, medical supplies and equipment for the Mackenzie Hospital and, earlier this year, sponsored a team of US based medical professionals to conduct minor surgeries and other critical care needs in Region Ten. The Linden Fund has also provided furniture for schools and is engaged in a revitalization program to create new job opportunities in the Upper Demerara Area.
The Fund also sponsors the Adopt-A-Child (AAC) Programme in partnership with the Linden Care Foundation. In the AAC Programme, individuals are allowed to adopt a child or children with a monthly donation that covers the cost of nutrition, education and life skills.
Over the years, Dr. Adams has harbored a burning desire to use his technical competence and experience to provide relevant voluntary assistance in Guyana’s development thrust but his many offers in this regard are yet to be accepted. The eternal optimist, Dr. Adams is hopeful that this desire would one day begin to bear fruit.
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