Obituaries

Noah Adams, a longtime host of NPR news program “All Things Considered” and a journalist known for his gentle voice and genuine curiosity, has died. He was 84. Adams died Oct. 16 at his home in Yellow Springs, Ohio, according to NPR. The cause was complications of a benign brain tumor removed eight years ago, his wife and longtime NPR news producer Neenah Ellis told the New York Times. A host of the weekday edition of “All Things Considered” for 18 years, Adams helped cover major news events and produced segments from his travels around the country, talking to everyday people, often in small rural towns. “He never liked talking to people who he knew had preprogrammed things to say,” Melissa Block, a former “All Things Considered” host who’d previously worked as a producer for Adams, said in NPR’s segment announcing his death. “He wanted people who were genuinely speaking from their heart and with conviction and sincerity.” Born on Sept. 15, 1942, in Ashland, Ky., Adams joined NPR in the mid-1970s after working various jobs including as a DJ and in construction in and around his hometown.