Career
She has been a resident of Harlem since 1942. She has been active with Church Women United, a Christian women"s advocacy movement. Adair is a graduate from Barber–Scotia College, Concord, North Carolina, and Bennett College, Greensboro, North Carolina.
She earned a master"s degree and Doctorate of Education from Teachers College, Columbia University.
Her husband is the late Reverend Her husband was a minister of the church from 1943 to 1979. He died in 1979. Adair is an advocate for early childhood education and helped to establish Head Start programs in Harlem.
She is Professor Emeritus of the City University of Queens College, City University of New New York Adair was born in Iron Station, North Carolina, and lived there while in elementary school.
Adair grew up during a period of North America history in the Southern United States known as Jim Crow.
She was born in 1922, in Iron Station, North Carolina, one of five children. She was born Thelma Cornelia Davidson. Her family then moved to Kings Mountain, North Carolina.
They moved to New York City in 1942.
Adair was an organizer for West Harlem Head Start Programs. In 1944 she was an organizer for the Arthur Eugene and Thelma Adair Community Life Center Head Start.
The center services over 250 children throughout various locations in Harlem. Adair has published and written numerous articles on early childhood education.
Her publications are authoritative guides for early childhood educators throughout the United States.
She was president of Church Women United from 1980 to 1984. She is a Columbia University Teachers College alumna. She was honored in 2011 by Congressman Charles Rangel.
She attended the Selma, Alabama 50th anniversary of the Selma to Montgomery marches across the Edmund Pettus Bridge.
Advisor, Church Women United, National Board. Board of Visitor, Davidson College.
Advisory Council, National Council of Churches. Member, Harlem Hospital Community Advisory Board.
