Theodore "Ted" Ellery Adams Jr., a UC Davis alumnus and former College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences faculty member, died suddenly Jan. 9, 2004, at age 67.

Adams received his bachelor's and master's degrees in range management from UC Davis. Before coming to UC Davis, he served in the U.S. Army's Medical Service Corps and worked with the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Soil Conservation Service.

From 1972 until his retirement in 1998, Adams served as a Cooperative Extension wildlands specialist in the UC Davis Department of Agronomy and Range Science.

Adams' work at UC Davis included helping to promote methods to ensure oak tree preservation, and his work on oaks preceded and contributed to the establishment of the Division of Agricultural and Natural Resources' Integrated Hardwood Range Management Program. Also, Adams was actively involved in advocating for more comprehensive brushland management to help prevent devastating, costly wildfires, especially in the mid-1970s, as California's population boomed and more communities sprang up in wildland areas.