Starting in 1961, Tom Adams taught at the St. Mark's School of Texas in Dallas for 45 years, where he held the Cecil and Ida Green Master Teaching Chair in History. When I knew him in the '60s and '70s, he was legendary for not only for his history lectures, and for his coaching of baseball, football, basketball and track, but my fondest memories of him recall his Art History class.

His lectures on paintings, using thousands of 35mm slides he'd collected over many years, captivated me, and formed the basis for my love of painting. Mr. Adams had done his Master's Thesis at Harvard on John Singer Sargent and Thomas Eakins, two painters who have heavily influenced me and generations of painters.

I recently asked Mr. Adams if he would allow me to paint his portrait. I got to spend several lovely hours recalling his career and thanking him for being such a profound influence on me. The painting depicts him in his den, and the lemon refers to a portrait of Theodore Duret by Edward Manet, the subject of many of Mr. Adams's captivating lectures.

At a recent reunion Mr. Adams presented a fascinating lecture on his personal "Top 5 Presidents" and did his world-famous "Fast Talk" routine with the 50 states, 50 state capitals, the alphabet backwards, US Presidents, Books of the Bible, 32 points of a compass and all the train stops between NY and Chicago. You can see that here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HcwR23byCCg