It’s hard to imagine someone more courageous than Steven Adams. After losing six-year-old daughter Morgan to a brain tumor in 1998, Steven and his tireless wife, Joan Slaughter, pulled together a group of artist friends to host an art auction benefitting Children’s Hospital Colorado. Since then, the Morgan Adams Foundation has raised more than $2.5 million for pediatric cancer research.

So it was a crushingly cruel blow when we learned that Steven, who was 5280’s original staff photographer, was himself diagnosed with a rare form of cancer in 2011. Not surprisingly, he battled the disease with conviction, still advancing the foundation’s work, until just a few weeks before his death in September at the age of 51.

5280 November 2013
More From The Issue

Our hearts go out to Joan and the couple’s children, Andrew and Grace.