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Dr. Adams may just be the best-dressed professor at A&M," said Samantha Soul, a senior English major. "Everything down to his cuff links is completely coordinated."
Soul is in Ralph James Quincy (RJQ) Adams' 19th century British history course this semester.
"He loves to talk about his 'other' lifestyle apart from being a history professor," Soul said. "He gets decked out in his 'leathers' and rides his motorbike around town. He also enjoys spending Saturday mornings at a local Starbucks."
Adams joined as a faculty member in A&M's history department in 1974. After receiving his bachelor of science from Indiana University, his master of arts from Valparaiso University and his doctorate's from the University of California-Santa Barbara, Adams worked in the North for two years before settling in College Station.
Adams said he came to his concentration, 20th century British history, because sometimes, you just fall in love with a subject.
"I didn't go to university to be what I am," Adams said. "But the truth of the matter is, I had a brilliant teacher, a wonderful teacher, and pretty soon, I was absolutely passionately in love with the subject. And I'm delighted to tell you that he lived long enough to see me succeed in this. It was touching. It was very important to me."
Adams, who grew up for the most part in a suburb of Chicago, knew little about Texas before coming to A&M in 1974.
"I took my doctoral degree in 1972 and [back] then the job market was grim," he said. "I was lucky to get a job teaching at a small liberal arts college in the East. I was happy there, but in a place like that, your primary job is teaching all of these classes and I wanted to do that, but [also] research. There are just so many hours in a day. And then A&M came along and I could do both. I've been here ever since."
Adams said he couldn't imagine living anywhere else, because he's been able to experience College Station's growth.
"You've got to remember how this place has changed," Adams said. "I've watched it grow and been a part of it. When I first came here, people going from Bryan to College Station would drive through the campus. It was another world. This is an amazing place. It's not necessarily amazing in the way you guys see it, because you're here for only four years. And in my case, having come here as a young man 35 years ago, I'm kind of a part of that organic mix."
Adams said he never expected to be able to live the life he lives now.
"You see, I grew up in a working class background," he said. "My father worked for the railroad. I never thought this would happen. So, it's really been an adventure."
Adams, who travels to London every year, said as soon as classes are out, he goes into research mode.
"The number of things I have not seen [in London] is amazing, because I get there and get caught up in my research," he said. "[London is] exciting, and so one of these days I'm going to have to do some tourist stuff."
Adams said that as a scholar, he gets privileges to do things other people do not get a chance to do, like reading Queen Victoria's private diary in Windsor Castle's private archive.
"I've been in this business for a long time, and you know, you get a little hardened to it sometimes," he said. "But here I am, sitting in a little room all by myself, and I've got Queen Victoria's diary in my hands. It's just amazing."
"Imagine, when a heart surgeon opens somebody up and works on the heart, that's how a guy like that must feel. It's great. I mean, there it is. She wrote it in her hand when she was 30 or 40, or whatever it was, and she's been dead since 1901. And here's one of the greatest women in modern history, and I'm reading her diary about her husband and her kids, and what she did. It's really quite a humbling experience."
Adams said he tries to show his students how the study of history is a very romantic experience and is about imagination.
"Some people it grabs," he said. "That's true whether you are in a French class or whether you're in a chemistry class. You can just see the light go on and they're hooked. You can't expect a lot of that, because how many millions of historians do we need? But there's going to be a few people and the passion will begin to grow."
Adams said he feels a little bit of immortality in that respect, because he can teach students and write books that will continue.
In reference to his double life as a Harley Davidson motorcycle rider, Adams said he likes to joke that everybody deserves at least two lives.
"My fun thing is that I have a motorcycle," he said. "Saturday morning I can suit up in my leathers, get on my Harley and ride to Caldwell for breakfast or something, just to do it, and I think that's absolutely necessary. It doesn't matter what it is."
He said occasionally, a student will approach him wondering if it is really him when he stops at a Starbucks for a cup of coffee and the Saturday morning paper suited up in his leathers.
Adams said, if he could go back in time to any period of history, it would be the period from about 1900 to World War I. But you can't romanticize it, he said, because Brazos Valley, Texas is home.
"I wouldn't want to live there, because I'm very much a man of the 21st century," he said. "I really would like to see that world at its end, because after World War I, the whole world was different forever. And wouldn't that be fun to see ladies in their elegant long dresses and gentlemen in their long coats? Just to see it."
Adams can often be seen on campus wearing a three-piece suit, complete with cuff links.
"I think it cheers me up and it's fun. Part of that, I think, is my experience of spending time in Britain and Europe."
In 2004, Adams received the distinction of being named a Patricia and Bookman Peters Professor of History, which provides financial backing for research projects.
"Mr. Peters and the late Mrs. Peters love history and love A&M, and they made this gift to history," he said. "And it landed in my lap, for which I am very grateful. So it's kind of a special honor, and I am still just tickled to death about it."
Adams said his latest book, Balfour: The Last Grandee, finished in June and will be in stores Thursday. He is now working on The Georgians. Adams has published eight books, the first one in 1978.
"It's been kind of an intellectual love affair," Adams said. "It's amazing at my age to go to work in the morning and still love what you're doing. It's a real privilege."
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