Arthur S. Adams served as Chairman of the Reserve Forces Policy Board from 1953 to 1955.

Arthur S. Adams (July 1, 1896 – November 18, 1980) was an American academic most notable for having served as president of the University of New Hampshire. He also served as Assistant Dean of Engineering and Director of the Engineering Science Management War Training Program and Provost at Cornell. In 1948 he was appointed president of the University of New Hampshire. He was chairman of the Reserve Forces Policy Board at the United States Department of Defense from 1953 to 1955. From 1962-1965, he served as the second president of the Salzburg Global Seminar, a non-profit organization based in Salzburg, Austria, whose mission is to challenge current and future leaders to develop creative ideas for solving global problems. Dr. Adams co-authored The Development of Physical Thought and Fundamentals of Thermodynamics.

Dr. Arthur Stanton Adams was a former university president and provost who headed the American Council on Education here from 1951 to 1961. Before heading the council, the nations's principal nongovernmental coordinating body for education, Dr. Adams was president of the University of New Hampshire and provost of Cornell University. He was the recipeint of 23 honorary degrees.

In 1962, he was selected by Washington's five major universities to conduct a study, under a grant from the Eugene and Agnes E. Meyer Foundation, joint graduate study programs. At the time, he was heading the Seminar in American Studies in Salzburg, Austria.

During the 1960s and 1970s, Dr. Adams served as a consultant for the University of New Hampshire and the New England Center for Continuing Education.

Dr. Adams was the coauthor of two books, "The Development of Physical Thought," with Leonard B. Loeb, and "Fundamentals of Thermodynamics," with George D. Hilding.

Dr. Adams was born July 1, 1896 in Winchester, Mass. He graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy at Annapolis and U.S. Submarine School in 1918. He served on active duty as a captain in the Navy twice and was administrator of the Navy's V-12 program during World War II, for which he received the Legion of Merit. He earned the appellation “Father of the Navy’s V-12 Program,” a title bestowed on him by his Navy peers as well as by university colleagues across the nation. The V-12 program was initiated in 1943 with the purpose of granting bachelor’s degrees to future commissioned officers. Approximately 150,000 junior officers were trained at the college level for the expanding Navy—one of the most comprehensive educational undertakings in American higher education. Adams received the Legion of Merit honor “for exceptionally meritorious achievement while performing highly responsible duties in the Bureau of Naval Personnel.” As officer in charge of the college training section, he “not only made a distinguished contribution to the greatest wartime training program ever undertaken by the Navy Department, but also laid the solid foundation for a peacetime officer training program which will uphold the highest traditions of the Naval Service for many years to come.”

From 1940 to 1942, he was Director of the Engineering, Science and Management War Training Program and Assitant Dean of Engineering at Cornell. He earned a Master's Degree in Physics from the University of California at Berkeley and a Doctor of Science Degree from the Colorado School of Mines.

Dr. Adams pasted away on November 18, 1980. Twice widowed, he was married to the former Dorothy Anderson and Irene Hunt Smith. A son, John, also died. Survivors include six grandchildren and several great-grandchildren.