Born in Ashland, Kentucky, Adams held a number of jobs before finding his way onto the airwaves, from construction to selling cars. But it was storytelling that was his passion, and he found an outlet in 1972 working for the University of Kentucky's public radio station, then known as WBKY. Those call letters wouldn't change into WUKY until 1989.
His time in Kentucky provided the springboard for his career at NPR, which he joined in the mid-70s, when the network was still getting its sea legs.
While Adams covered world-shaping events like the fall of the Berlin Wall and the September 11 attacks, he was an intensely private reporter who leaned away from politics, preferring to speak with people who lacked preset talking points. That eventually led him back to Kentucky, where he made several visits to the home of the late writer and activist Wendell Berry.
"He and Tanya, his wife and two children, moved into an old farmhouse, and he put together sort of a writer's shack way out back in the woods. Private, no electricity, no typewriter. He would keep supplies of notebooks and pencils," Adams began on the pieces.
Adams hosted All Things Considered for 18 years, wrote five books, including one about Appalachia, and will be remembered as a voice that helped define NPR.
He died Friday at his home in Yellow Springs, Ohio. He was 84.