The George Lawrence Abernethy Library Pavilion Named for Trailblazer and Former Trustee Dr. Thelma Davidson Adair
September 15, 2025
- Author
- Caroline Roy ’20
Thelma Adair with President Gerald Ford (1977)
Image Courtesy of “Dr. Thelma Adair Harlem-based Early Childhood Educator and Presbyterian Church Leader”
When The George Lawrence Abernethy Library opens its doors, the rooftop will become its crowning gathering space, a place where Davidson students, faculty, staff and community members come together to hold class discussions, hear lectures, sip a coffee and look out across campus.
On this level, visitors will find the Dr. Thelma Davidson Adair Pavilion, the result of a prominent naming effort led by Davidson College Trustees and inspired by one of the college’s most notable leaders.
In 1983, Thelma Davidson Adair became the college’s first Black trustee, leveraging her position to champion minority student voices and the educational experience. She traced her roots — and her maiden name — to enslaved descendants at Beaver Dam plantation in Davidson.
John W. Kuykendall ’59 became president of Davidson shortly after Adair joined the board and remembers meeting her for the first time, hearing her full name and understanding the significance of her relation to the college’s history.
“To bear the name of the founder, that gives you cause to reflect and think,” he said.
“That was a critical time in Davidson’s history, and she served the college with such grace.”
During Adair’s tenure as a trustee, she also served on the Task Force on Racial/Ethnic Concerns, a committee created by Kuykendall in response to the leadership and advocacy work of Black students on campus. One key student leader was Janet Stovall ’85, now a trustee, who wanted to do something about the isolation she faced as one of only 50 Black students on campus.
“I didn’t know what a trustee was yet,” Stovall said. “I knew she wasn’t a professor because we had no Black professors. Dr. Adair sat next to me and introduced herself. She was very thoughtful. She’d sit there and wait for everyone to stop arguing before speaking her piece.”
Adair passed away in August 2024, just shy of her 104th birthday, leaving behind a legacy of leadership and grace. While she grew up in Kings Mountain, North Carolina, she lived most of her adult life in Harlem, where she founded Mount Morris Presbyterian Church with her husband, Reverend Arthur Eugene Adair, and raised three children.
Dr. Robert Adair, who continues to practice medicine in New Jersey at the age of 82, remembers his mother as an educator above all else. The first question she would ask him when he came home from school was always: “What did you learn today?”
“She cherished her relationship with Davidson College,” Robert Adair said. “The college had reached out to her, embraced her and honored her passion for education and excellence. The Thelma Davidson Adair Pavilion is the fruition of everything she was committed to and felt a part of. She was proud of Davidson and where it was going. She would have been honored by this naming.”
Thelma Davidson Adair (1976)
Image Courtesy of Presbyterian Historical Society Collections
Through her position in the church, Adair helped lead civil rights efforts in Harlem and organized the Arthur Eugene and Thelma Adair Community Life Center Head Start Program, which for 80 years has continued to provide early childhood education and care for more than 250 children in the community.
In 1976, Adair was elected Moderator of the 188th General Assembly of the United Presbyterian Church — one of the precursors to the PC(USA) — becoming the first Black woman to hold the position.
Speaking to the assembly following her election, Adair made a case for principled action through faith, saying: “You are not helpless. You have power as an individual, and you have power you can find and possess as a group. Don’t go home apathetic, go home radicalized by your faith.”
Adair also served the Peace Corps, creating and coordinating training programs for volunteers around the world. She was a professor with great interest in education and she was a convener, bringing people together to learn and serve.
A Legacy of Change
In the decades that followed Dr. Adair’s time as a trustee, the college brought more Black students and professors to campus and built a network of resources for support and community.
When The George Lawrence Abernethy Library opens, the rooftop pavilion will become one of several new gathering spaces where Davidson students can meet, mingle and start conversations that will shape the next 50 years of the college’s history.
“The renovated library is designed to inspire collaboration, idea sharing and more,” said President Doug Hicks ’90. “Curiosity permeates our campus, and I see the Dr. Thelma Adair Pavilion as a place where ideas take shape and become reality. Her influence as a visionary shaping a more perfect Davidson College cannot be overstated, and it is fitting that her name will be a permanent part of this new space at the heart of campus.”
Kuykendall hopes Adair’s name will serve as a constant, visible reminder of her legacy.
“This is an acknowledgement of the sometimes invisible presence of the African American community in the life of this place,” he said. “When the pavilion opens, I hope people know why it’s named for Thelma. I want people to learn about her and understand how she shaped the college during a critical time in our history.”
