'I still can’t quite believe it'

COEUR d’ALENE — Good company.

That’s what John Adams had to say of being named the Coeur d’Alene Regional Chamber’s Citizen of the Year, selected from a short list of five.

Other nominees were Nick Swayne, Jon Ness, Bill Reagan and Heidi Rogers.

All, Adams said, were definitely worthy of the award. He’s not convinced he deserved it.

“Just to be considered with the names that were on that list, to me that was reward enough,” Adams said. “I was in pretty good company.”

The president of Coeur d’Alene Tractor said he attended the Dec. 13 event because he was told his company was up for an award.

“That was the pretense,” he said.

But when his children, grandchildren and old friends arrived, he said he should have been suspicious something was up.

When his name was called as Citizen of the Year, he humbly accepted.

“I was really honored,” Adams said. “I still can’t quite believe it."

The 83-year-old still works pretty much full time at Coeur d’Alene Tractor, overseeing operations from a modest office at the Appleway Avenue store. It has stores in Bonners Ferry, Spokane, Lewiston and Colville.

He is sharp and serious, but likes to joke around, like noting that being company president has perks.

“If I leave for lunch and don’t come back for two or three hours, no one says anything,” he said, chuckling.

When asked about his company title as president, he says, “With a name like John Adams, it’s a given.”

He and his wife, Joanna, have been married 34 years and between them have seven children and 10 great-grandchildren.

John Adams has contributed to the community at many levels: A longtime benefactor for Children’s Village, serving 29 years on the Coeur d’Alene Airport board and donating to youth sports like swimming and baseball.

He also keeps tabs on community developments.

“Being involved in the Chamber of Commerce, I think, is very important,” he said.

Adams also takes on tasks with little fanfare, like plowing the Kootenai Medical Center (today Kootenai Health) parking lot and driveways in a snowstorm in the late '90s.

“Emergency vehicles couldn’t get into the emergency area,” Adams said.

“That’s the kind of stuff that John does to help people. They were really in need,” wife Joanna Adams added.

Adams, who served in the Navy active duty from 1962 to 1967, is a believer in doing as much business as possible at the local level and encourages others to do the same.

“There’s always been that, ‘Support your own community,’” Joanna said.

He jokes that when friends ask if he’ll give them a tractor, the answer is "no."

“I’m going to make money off my friends because my enemies don’t shop here,” he said, laughing.

Adams is gearing up to hand off the business to the family’s fourth generation, “and the fifth generation is standing out there at the counter.”

But for now, Adams loves what he does and the people he does business with. He is confident "they are the best."

“The people that buy tractors, the people that buy lawn mowers, snow blowers, are good people," he said. "You don’t buy a tractor unless you’re going to do something positive.

“They're just good people. And these people become our friends,” he said. “That’s really why I still come in.”