Beach, not books, was a top priority for new Kmart boss
By Andrew Gomes
Advertiser Staff Writer
James B. Adamson, a 1967 Damien Memorial High School graduate, was an all-star basketball player who listed his career choice as Christian Brother. He cared more about surfing than school and earned marginal grades.
Damien High Yearbook, 1967
Could this be the same James B. Adamson, the corporate turnaround master, who this month was tapped to guide Kmart through the biggest retail bankruptcy reorganization ever?
At Damien, Kmart's new boss "loved basketball, and ... wasn't awfully enthusiastic about school."
It is, according to Brother John Cullerton, who coached and taught Adamson at the private Catholic school in Palama.
Adamson was among 144 students in the school's second graduating class. Cullerton grew close to the young Adamson, whose father, a military man who had to be in Vietnam during his son's senior year, had asked Cullerton to ensure the boy went to college.
Cullerton smiles when asked if that was easy. "He loved the beach and he loved basketball, and he wasn't awfully enthusiastic about school," Cullerton recalled. "But he managed. He could have done a lot better, but it wasn't a priority at that time."
Adamson got into Gonzaga University, maybe with a little help from Cullerton, who said he put in a good word with the basketball coach at the Jesuit-founded school in Spokane, Wash.
"Somewhere along the line, in his sophomore year I think, he just realized he just had to get down to business and had to turn it around," said Cullerton, who still teaches at Damien.
Adamson graduated from Gonzaga in 1971 with a bachelor's in business administration.
Cullerton, who said he still exchanges Christmas cards with Adamson's mother, has stayed in touch with his former student, meeting the executive during his stint at Revco and another time Adamson was in town inspecting Burger King franchises.
Cullerton said he's most proud of Adamson being named chief executive officer of the year in 1996 by Kweisi Mfume, president of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, and being a "great family man."
And he's not disappointed about the career choice Adamson listed in his year book. "I think he was being a little facetious," Cullerton said.
