Charles Francis Adams III (August 2, 1866 – June 10, 1954) was an American lawyer and politician, who served as the 44th United States Secretary of the Navy under President Herbert Hoover from 1929 to 1933. He was the captain of the Resolute which won the 1920 America's Cup.
Adams graduated cum laude from Harvard College in 1888, where he was a brother of the Delta Kappa Epsilon fraternity (Alpha chapter). He later graduated from Harvard Law School in 1892.
Career
After graduating from Harvard Law and being admitted to the bar in 1893, he was first a lawyer, then went into business. Adams was elected as a delegate at large to serve as a member of the Massachusetts Constitutional Convention of 1917.
At one time, he was an officer in 43 corporations, including several banks and many of the country's largest corporations such as the New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad, the Union Pacific Railroad, and the Harvard Corporation. Adams retired from his position on March 4, 1933.
Adams was a supporter of limited presidential terms, well before the Twenty-second Amendment to the United States Constitution passed, and advocated that the Presidents should be required to renounce political parties and that after they left the presidency, should be made ex-officio members of the United States Senate. He was also an honorary companion of the Naval Order of the United States. In 1932, he was elected a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
Personal life
Family
A scion of the Adams family that produced two presidents, Adams, a son of John Quincy Adams II, the oldest son of the Charles Francis Adams Sr., was a great-grandson of the sixth U. S. President John Quincy Adams, and a great-great-grandson of the second U.S. President John Adams. Adams was also the third cousin twice removed of Otis Norcross, the 19th Mayor of Boston. Both descending from their fourth great-grandfather, Joseph Adams; Otis from his first wife Mary [Chapin], and Charles from his second wife Hannah [Bass].
Charles Francis Adams Jr. was an uncle of Charles Francis Adams III, not his father as regularly assumed by virtue of sequential name succession. Charles Jr. had five children, the first three being daughters, which may explain why his brother John Q. Adams II took the prerogative to name his firstborn son after his brother. Charles Jr.'s only sons (twins) were born in 1875.
Marriage and children
thumb|Adams and Frances in 1929On April 3, 1899, Adams married Frances Lovering (), the daughter of U.S. Representative William C. Lovering (1835–1910), at St. John's Episcopal Church in Washington, D.C. Together, they had two children: Together, they had five sons.
- Charles Francis Adams IV in 1910, who was a prominent businessman and the first president of Raytheon Company, was married firstly to Margaret [Stockton]. Their children were: Abigail Adams, Allison Adams, Charles Francis Adams V, and Timothy Adams. He married secondly, widow Mrs. Beatrice D. Penati, who had a son named Giannotto Penati.
Adams died on June 11, 1954, and was interred in Mount Wollaston Cemetery in Quincy, Massachusetts, His estate, valued at $192,000 in 1954, was left to his widow.
In 1899, Adams built his family home and estate on land in Concord, Massachusetts formerly owned by his uncle, Charles Francis Adams Jr. The home, known as Mt. Vernon, stood for 120 years until it was destroyed by fire shortly after Christmas Day 2019.
Honors
The Charles Francis Adams Memorial Trophy for yacht racing was established in his memory, and the Navy destroyer USS Charles F. Adams was dedicated in his honor.