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Adams drives his help as hard as he drives himself. One time he and his then assistant, Charles F. Willis Jr., walked out of Adams' office to discover that two of his four stenographers had obviously been weeping. Startled, Adams beat a hasty retreat. "What are they crying about—what did I do?" Adams asked. "You were abrupt and somewhat rude," replied Willis. "Oh no," said Adams. "Oh yes," said Willis. "What'll I do?" asked Adams. "I think you ought to say something to them," advised Willis. "Well-all right," said Adams hesitantly. He returned to the outer office, gazed awkwardly at the girls for a moment, and then, striding quickly around the room, thumped each girl on the back with a cheery "Hiya, honey!" He was thoroughly bewildered when the girls began sobbing in earnest.
The Highest Compliment. The members of the office staff who stick around long enough to get to know him swear by Adams. Says Alice Smith, a former secretary on his White House staff: "The work he does! A few times people in Washington asked me where I worked, and when I told them they would look at me with a squint and say, 'Oh, you work for him?' And I would say, 'Yes, I do, and he's the finest boss in Washington.' "
This is the sort of confidence that Sherman Adams can inspire, both from below and from above. He has no greater admirer than the President. When the political demands for Adams' removal go up—Ike is likely to snort: "The trouble with those people is they don't understand integrity." And once, to a friend, President Eisenhower paid Adams the highest compliment at his command. "The only person who really understands what I am trying to do," said the President of the U.S., "is Sherman Adams."
*Through his father, Sherman Adams is de scended from the Henry Adams who left Somer set, England in 1638, settled in Braintree, Mass., and founded an American dynasty. Henry Adams' seventh son, Joseph, was the great-great-grandfather of President John Adams and the great-great-great-grandfather of President John Quincy Adams. Sherman Adams traces his lineage through Henry Adams' eighth (and last) son, Edward. *The 399-member New Hampshire house of representatives, the nations' second-largest lawmaking body, includes a representative from every incorporated township with a population of at least 729.