CAMDEN — Alexander "Sandy" MacLeod Adams passed away Nov. 1, 2013, at the Maine Veteran's Home in Augusta, Maine where he received excellent care for the past year. Sandy was born Nov. 26, 1926, in Englewood, N.J., the son of James Adams and Catharine Baker Adams. His parents retired to Camden, while Sandy attended the University of Maine in Orono. At UMO he joined the newspaper, Maine Campus, and served as its editor during his senior year.

He enlisted in the Air Force after college and traveled in the Middle East and worked for NATO during his Air Force career. This fueled his love of languages and travel. After moving to Italy and starting his career as an English teacher, Sandy was recruited by the Vatican to give English lessons to the Vatican’s press officer. Being one of the only Americans with access to the Vatican at that time, news outlets like NBC and the Wall Street Journal hired him as their Vatican and Italian correspondent. During this time, he met a number of luminaries, including Frank Sinatra, Eva Gardner, Sophia Loren, Margaret Chase Smith and the Arch Bishop of Venice, later Pope John Paul.

Sandy obtained a graduate degree in teaching from the University of Maine and a degree in linguistics from the University of Michigan and then pursued a 37-year career as a teacher of English as a second language. He then taught and lived in Iran, Saudi Arabia and Greece. He made Greece his home, building a house on the Island of Aegina and cruising the Greek Isles and the Mediterranean extensively in his "lobster boat" with a homeport of Camden proudly placed on the stern. He later moved to Athens and continued to visit there regularly after settling in Camden. Sandy remained close to Camden during this time, returning to visit his mother, friends and family on a regular basis. Eventually, he returned to Camden and built a home on the Megunticook River.

Sandy is fondly remembered by many friends and associates in Camden and a number of cousins who visited him in Maine on a regular basis. He was an active volunteer at Pen Bay Medical Center and was actively involved in the St. Thomas Episcopal Church in Camden.

The funeral will be held Monday, Nov. 11, at 1 p.m. St. Thomas Episcopal Church on Chestnut Street in Camden, followed by burial in Oak Hill Cemetery.

Arrangements are with Long Funeral Home in Camden.