“We must teach our children not merely the importance of making a living, but also how to live and make a life.”  (Colonel Lynn G. Adams,  address to Berwick Kiwanis Club, 1934)

Born in Hop Bottom, PA., in 1880 to Simon and Nina Adams, Lynn G. Adams was raised and educated in Scranton. Following his years at Scranton High School, Adams served in the United States Army during the Spanish American War. His service from 1898 to 1903 included 30 months in the Philippine Islands. 

After his wartime service, Adams returned to Scranton. He attended Scranton Business College and worked for the Erie Railroad. In November, 1905, he traveled to Philadelphia and took the examination for the newly-formed Pennsylvania State Police. With his military experience, Adams easily passed the exam. One month later he became one of the original members of the Pennsylvania State Police. 

Adams remained with the State Police and moved through the ranks of the organization until he was called to serve in World War I. With the  American Expeditionary Force in France from 1917 to 1919, Adams served as Provost Marshall. Following his military service, Adams resumed his duties with the State Police. 

Adams worked on criminal cases locally, statewide, and nationally during his career. Of note was the 1920 kidnapping case of Norristown, PA toddler, Blakely Coughlin. Coughlin was abducted from his home on June 2, 1920. Coughlin’s parents paid a ransom for their child, but sadly, Blakely was dead at the hands of kidnapper August Pasquale. 

The investigative work of Lynn Adams and his team identified the kidnapper. Although Coughlin’s body was never found, Adams definitively established that the child was dead. Adams experience with the Coughlin case allowed him to be enlisted to aid another family of a missing child years later. Adams was asked to aid in the investigation of the kidnapping of the  20-month-old son of famed aviator Charles Lindbergh and his wife Ann Morrow Lindbergh. 

During his career Adams held the positions of Superintendent of Police from 1920 to 1937 and Commissioner of Motor Police from 1939 to 1943. Under his tenure, the first trooper training school was instituted along with a teletype system connecting law enforcement officials. He also introduced a questionnaire for future troopers to determine their mental and physical fitness for their positions within the State Police. 

Adams also lectured extensively throughout Pennsylvania to social, fraternal, religious and youth groups about crime, its prevention and the duties of the State Police. Retiring in 1943 with the rank of Colonel, Adams holds the record for the lengthiest tenure by a head of the Pennsylvania State Police, serving almost 22 years. He is the only person in State Police history to hold the title of Superintendent and Commissioner. 

Colonel Lynn G. Adams died at the age of 85 on December 2, 1965. Upon his passing, flags at Pennsylvania State Police barracks were lowered to half-mast throughout Pennsylvania. Adams was laid to rest in Section Twenty-One of the Dunmore Cemetery.