Person: Adams (3), Doris
Louise Doris Adams was a school teacher and school inspector who did much to improve the teaching of mathematics in schools. She was enthusiastically involved with the Mathematical Association and in 1959-60 she served as its President, being only the second woman to hold this role.
Mathematical Profile (Excerpt):
- We note right at the beginning of this biography that she sometimes used the name Louise Adams, sometimes Doris Adams and sometimes L D Adams.
- Louise Doris Adams was educated first at Miss Reynolds school in Weymouth, Dorset.
- Doris Adams, aged 11 at the time, was the second youngest pupil, the ages of the pupils ranging from 9 to 18.
- Adams moved to the famous girls boarding school, Roedean School, near Brighton, on the south coast of England due south of London.
- On the Bedford College Entrance Form Adams' address is Woodside, Loughton, Essex.
- One of the most interesting items on Adams' Entrance Form is the names of her two referees.
- Adams' record shows that she was in the Faculty of Science and, in her first year at Bedford, 1906-07, she attended 400 hours of lectures.
- The 1911 UK Census shows Doris Adams (this is the name on the form) at the home of Arthur H D Acland in Dunkery House, Golf Road, Felixstowe.
- Adams graduated with a Second Class Honours Degree in Mathematics from the University of London in 1911.
- In 1948 Adams was the director of an in-service course for teachers which explored the applications of mathematics to a variety of topics such as astronomy, biology, geography and social sciences.
- Afterwards Miss Adams visited these teachers and her experienced appraisal of conditions and results helped to raise the status of mathematics in the schools and ensured a larger share of the annual budget for a subject until then largely regarded as non-practical.
- This exhibition showed work quite advanced for its time and many of the ideas found there are still being put forward as "new." Miss Adams led a team of three speakers in a symposium on this exhibition.
- Adams wrote the book A Background of Primary School Mathematics which was published by Oxford University Press in 1953.
- As old age approached, Adams continued to actively and enthusiastically support the West Country group of the Association as well as travelling with some of the members to London to chair meetings of Mathematical Association committees.
- Miss Adams drove her committee hard, particularly those within telephoning distance, who might be roused at an early hour to hear of a new idea.
Born 2 July 1889, Tuffley, Gloucestershire, England. Died 24 December 1965, Worthing, Sussex, England.
View full biography at MacTutor
Tags relevant for this person:
Origin England, Women
Thank you to the contributors under CC BY-SA 4.0! 
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- non-Github:
- @J-J-O'Connor
- @E-F-Robertson
References
Adapted from other CC BY-SA 4.0 Sources:
- O’Connor, John J; Robertson, Edmund F: MacTutor History of Mathematics Archive
