Artist: Thomas Embert (“Tom”) Phillips (1927–2005); original portrait by Joseph Allworthy
William Phipps Adams II
ADAMS, WILLIAM PHIPPS II (1910–1996), inducted 1970
William “Bill” Adams was born in Odebolt, Iowa, and earned a bachelor’s degree from the University of Wisconsin in 1933. Under the business name Adams Brothers & Company, Adams operated his family’s farm, the largest in Iowa. Historically a grain farm, Bill Adams expanded the Hereford herd on Adams Farm (also known as Fairview) in 1946. In 1963, he moved the operation to Kilgore, Nebraska.
Adams served as director of the Iowa Hereford Association, the American Hereford Association, and the International Live Stock Exposition (1960–1974), where he oversaw the Diamond Jubilee celebration of the Exposition in 1974. Saddle & Sirloin artist Joseph Allworthy painted the Bill Adams portrait that was presented to the Club in 1970, but a portrait by Tom Phillips was moved to Louisville from Chicago.
Source: Saddle & Sirloin Guidebook 2026, p. 36