About John Adair

John Adair loves chess, jazz, books and people.

His father was a brilliant electronics engineer and pioneer in the development of television. His mother was a socialite involved with women’s fashion boutiques and she loved to travel.

John was educated mainly in Los Angeles, but also studied abroad in Mexico and Switzerland. He learned Spanish as a second language and developed it through the years. In college he studied languages, linguistics and literature; mainly the Classics, Masterpieces of European Literature and Early American Literature.

Though he fell short of obtaining a B.A. Degree, he estimates that he read 120 to 130 books during a 14 month period at the Beverly Hills Library while unemployed. John says with a grin, “That was my B.H.L. Degree.”

In 1996, he and his family suffered a tragedy when his brother Robert was murdered in his home, in the middle of the day, while on his lunch break.

John was able to channel a lot of his anger, frustration and sense of loss through the creative process. He started writing a letter to his brother, then switched to Spanish because it lent itself more to the type of things he wanted to say, then switched to a fully metered and rhymed poem with 15 stanzas. It took 2 years and 9 months to complete, but by the end of the process, he found solace and acceptance.

In 2002, he was elected to the Board of Directors, Greater Toluca Lake Neighborhood Council and served a 3-year term as Treasurer and chaired or served on a half dozen committees. He also wrote and/or co-wrote all of the newspaper articles for the Tolucan Times informing the community of upcoming events, neighborhood issues, votes, etc.

John is semi-retired as a Senior Loan Consultant and Real Estate Broker for the past 18 years. He was Editor for both the Prodigy Financial Group and Family Mortgage Newsletters that featured monthly articles on finance & real estate.

John is a widower and has a 23 year old daughter who graduated from CLU in May of 2014. He now spends time writing poetry, short articles and doing translations. He lives in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Some of the topics I’ve written on are the following:

Art, music, mathematics, Love, the universe, fictional Mexicana, Bob Hope, marijuana laws, global economic analysis, Mother Teresa, the London Train Robbery, chess games, U.S. military, technology, Rafael Marin, mortgages & finance, geometry, John Lennon, business, America, Gen. ‘Chesty’ Puller, A birthday wish for Lea, Bobby Fischer and Jose Raul Capablanca, poem on a college girl’s eyes; untitled, word derivations, Bucky Fuller, politics, faith & intolerance.

Asked about his writing style, he says it’s got to have snap, crackle and pop.