NORFOLK, Va. — Back in 1960 on the campus of the Norfolk Division of Virginia State University, which would later become Norfolk State University, two chemistry students crossed paths.
Eloise Davis from Norfolk was an A+ freshman.
Howard Adams was a second year ROTC student from Danville who was struggling in their chemistry class.
“She was attractive,” said Howard Adams, Ph.D., with a reflective smile on his face. “[Eloise] was doing well. Looked good. And she was making A's.”
He continued, “I finally got up enough nerve to ask her about studying with me.”
“I noticed him from ROTC,” said Eloise Adams, Ph.D. “To be asked to study with someone who looked good in a uniform, that was okay!”
Just days after celebrating 60 years of marriage, they joined me on the NSU campus to reflect on their love story.
I asked, “Was there any part of you, when you started studying together, that [thought] ‘We will be married for a lifetime.'? ”
“No,” Howard replied.
“He had a girlfriend,” Eloise said.
I said, “Oh, the plot thickens!”
I continued, “At what point do you go from classmates, to study partners, to…”
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“Lovers?” Eloise said. “Ha!”
The two biology majors kept crossing paths in mutual classes. Howard said a year into their friendship, he invited Eloise to dinner on a recently desegregated Granby Street in Norfolk.
I asked, “Was there a moment you looked at each other and said, [this could be the one]?”
Howard said, “No, there was not a moment, but we grew into it”
I said, “You grew into love!”
Eloise said, “Yes! We grew into it!”
After earning their biology degrees, Howard became a teacher in Norfolk Public Schools. Eloise moved to New York for medical technology school.
“He would come up and visit me in New York, and then one day we just said ‘Oh, well maybe we'll get married,” said Eloise. “We eloped in New York.”
“We were feeling good about getting married,” Howard said.
The good feeling for the two former classmates who married in their 20s on January 30, 1965 has lasted 60 years. It’s a milestone only 2% of married couples reach, according to the National Center for Marriage and Family Research.
Howard exclaimed, “We’ve had a good life!”
Their life is marked byHoward’s journey from grade school teacher, to Vice President of NSU, to earning his doctorate degree and leading a prestigious graduate studies program at the University of Notre Dame.
After spending time in the health and medical field, Eloise became a teacher and later earned her doctorate degree in molecular biology and genetics.
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“We have supported each other,” said Howard. “That's the part that has made this work. We haven't got in each other's way.”
The couple has given back to their alma mater, too, earning a place in the esteemed Emerald Society last year. The group recognizes individuals whose lifetime giving to Norfolk State University is $50,000-$99,999.
I asked, “Of everything you've accomplished in this lifetime, does it compare to how proud you are of your daughter?”
Eloise exclaimed, “That’s it!”
She continued, “I was going to say, if you were going to ask me what we were are most proud of, that would be it!”
Their daughter, Stephanie, makes the third Dr. Adams in their immediate family. She made history in Hampton Roads as the first Black woman to serve as dean of the Batten College of Engineering and Technology at Old Dominion University from 2016 until 2019. She now serves as the dean of the Erik Jonsson School of Engineering & Computer Science at the University of Texas at Dallas.
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I exclaimed, “You’re a family of Ph.Ds!
“This relationship, then, has enabled this,” said Howard. “This wouldn't be possible otherwise.”
I asked, “Would you say you both picked well?”
Howard replied, “No question about that!”
Eloise chimed in, “We picked well.”
