In Memoriam

Adrian R. Wilkins

Obituary

PELHAM, MA — Adrian Wilkins, owner for many years (with his wife Connie) of The Mercantile stores in Amherst and Northampton, died peacefully on Sunday, May 29, 2022 at Care One in Northampton. Glioblastoma always wins. Adrian, 80, lived a full, interesting life, but had hopes for much more.

Many in the Pioneer Valley, along with thousands who passed through as college students, will remember The Mercantile fondly. Few know that in the early 1990's, as President of the Amherst Chamber of Commerce, Adrian convinced the Postal Service not to close the Amherst center post office when the one on University Drive was planned. For days he stood and counted the cars going past, making the case that the North Pleasant Street post office was an essential part of the community.

Born in Hudson, MA in 1941, son of the late Iris Wheeler Wilkins and Arthur Wilkins, he was first in his large family to attend college, earning a Navy scholarship to Yale University. In 1964, when he graduated, the Vietnam War was percolating. Eventually assigned as a Lieutenant to the USS Calcaterra, a destroyer escort from WWII, he expected to be sent to Vietnam, but the ship's captain volunteered for Antarctic duty, choosing huge waves and icebergs (and time off in New Zealand) over battle. When the ship was dented by an iceberg while the captain was having the ship's number painted on the ice, Adrian — officer of the repairs unit — had to direct his crew not to let the authorities know. Repairs weren't completed until they reached Marseilles on the way home, where a telegram announced that his first son had just been born.

After three years as an instructor at the naval base on Treasure Island in San Francisco Bay, Adrian's family moved to Amherst, where he earned a Master's degree at UMass. Sociology professors were in very low demand then, so he skipped a doctorate. Instead, to stay in the area, he and Connie turned to retail, and almost miraculously made it work.

Adrian is survived by his wife Constance (Connie) Harvey Wilkins; his son Allen Wilkins; wife Lisa Steele; and daughter Barbara of Shrewsbury MA; son Peter Wilkins of Pelham, MA; loving in-laws Bryan Harvey and Lynn Griesemer of Amherst MA; and Paul Harvey of North Roxbury MA. He is also survived by brother Charles Wilkins of Marlborough MA; sister Linda Wilkins Siebold of Murray KY; and numerous nieces, nephews, grandnieces, and grandnephews.

Services will be at a later date. Local arrangements are being handled by Czelusniak Funeral Home in Northampton.

No donations. Just shop locally.

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Essay, 50th Reunion Class Book, Yale Class of 1964

by Adrian "Age" Wilkins

May 2014

It has been an interesting and enjoyable life so far. I grew up outside a Massachusetts mill town where my mother was a farm housewife and my father was the RFD mailman. My high-school biology, chemistry, and physics teacher was a recent Yale grad. The Navy ROTC made Yale barely affordable and absorbed the five years after graduation.

l met Connie Harvey on a ski trip and began exchanging visits to Mt. Holyoke College. We were married in 1965 and have two sons and a granddaughter. Connie now writes short stories and edits anthologies from our home in Pelham MA where we both enjoy gardening. I pursue stock for investment via the internet and trout with my fly rod, to catch and release.

As a naval officer I spent two years aboard the USS Calcaterra (DER-390), a WWII destroyer escort that had been given some reasonably modern equipment and a captain whose main equipment had made him the quarterback of the football team at Annapolis. We would anchor hallway between Key West and Cuba, watching their fighter planes and having ours chase home any headed toward the U.S. About then Viemam was getting serious. Our whole destroyer squadron was to be sent to the Tonkin Gulf, so our captain volunteered our ship for Operation Deepfreeze, supporting scientific activities in the Antarctic. As the ship's Damage Control and Repair Officer, my division was kept busy for the nine months of that sometimes exciting and dangerous cruise. Wind and waves at sixty degrees South circle the globe unimpeded by land, so storm effects are akin to those of hurricanes. At least we had shore time in New Zealand and came home via Suez and several historic ports in the Mediterranean.

Connie and I and the new son then got to explore the mountains and redwoods of California while I spent three years as an instructor and Head of Instruction of the nuclear-defense section of the Navy Damage Control School in San Francisco.

When my obligated service was over, we moved to Amherst MA where I went to UMass and got an M.A. in sociology. I was studying for my doctorate when that job market collapsed and friends pointed out that someone they knew had a small gift store for sale. Since we had been making and selling silver jewelry and candles as a part of our income, we took a look and bought out their lease and inventory. Within two years we had moved to three times the space and bought a house in Amherst. After ten years we had a second one and had opened another store in Northampton and had moved to our home in Pelham surrounded by watershed land and UMass forest.

In 1990 we found a vacation home in the White Mountains which we see more often now that, at the end of 2011, we retired by selling the stores to two employees who met and married while working for us.