THE OLD LIGHTHOUSE- JAMES R ADAIR -RARE- COLLECTIBLE

James R. Adair spent more than 50 years in the Christian publishing world, writing 10 books, editing dozens of others, penning hundreds of magazine articles and reviewing hundreds of manuscripts submitted to the publishing house where he worked.

Mr. Adair also wrote and edited a popular series of Sunday school take-home papers called the Power Papers for more than 60 years. In addition, he was a regular letter-writer to newspapers -- including the Tribune, where his observations and opinions appeared over the years.

"His computer was where he spent most of his time," said Mr. Adair's daughter Mary. "He wrote about so many interesting people."

A 53-year resident of Wheaton, Mr. Adair, 86, died of congenital heart failure Saturday, March 21, in his home.

Born and raised in Asheville, N.C., Mr. Adair was an only child. His father died of tuberculosis when Mr. Adair was 10. Mr. Adair studied at Bob Jones College and Biltmore Junior College and later attended Northwestern University's evening school after moving to Chicago.

His first professional work was as a reporter for two newspapers in Asheville in the early 1940s.

In 1945, Mr. Adair answered an ad in a weekly Christian newspaper for an editing job at the Christian publisher Scripture Press Publications, and after winning the job, he moved to Chicago for the post.

"His mother had wanted him to get into a Christian organization, so she prayed, and a friend of hers saw this ad in the paper, and he answered it, had an interview and was accepted," said Mr. Adair's wife, Virginia.

Looking back in a first-person essay in 2002, Mr. Adair called the decision to take the Scripture Press job the start of "an adventure only God could plan."

In 1947, Mr. Adair began editing the publisher's Power Papers and shortly afterward became the editor of all five Scripture Press take-home papers. In 1951, Mr. Adair published his first of 10 books that he would write, titled "Saints Alive." His final book, "M.R. DeHaan: The Life Behind the Voice," about a Christian radio host, was published in September.

Mr. Adair moved to Wheaton in 1956, the same year that Scripture Press moved from Chicago to a newly built office building straddling the Wheaton-Glen Ellyn border.

On Independence Day 1959, Mr. Adair married his wife. Two years later, the couple welcomed "not one but two pink-faced, squirming, tiny daughters," twins Mary and Martha, he wrote in a Tribune essay in 2000.

In 1972, Mr. Adair became founding director of Scripture Press' Victor Books imprint. Although he retired from full-time work at the publisher in 1988, Mr. Adair remained part-time acquisitions editor and a consultant until Scripture Press was sold and relocated to Colorado in 1996. Even after that, he remained involved in editing and writing for Scripture Press' Power Papers, including issues that have not yet published, his wife said.

Mr. Adair's 312-page history of the publisher, titled "The Story of Scripture Press: The Whole Word for the Whole World," rolled off the presses in 1988.

Apart from a short period in the late 1950s, Mr. Adair also edited the monthly newsletter of the Pacific Garden Mission homeless shelter in Chicago from 1949 until his death. He also wrote "The Old Lighthouse: The Story of the Pacific Garden Mission," a 157-page history of the shelter, in 1966.

"He was a good friend of the mission," said David McCarrell, the shelter's president.

In addition to writing and editing, Mr. Adair enjoyed teaching junior high Sunday school, bowling and, earlier in his life, playing golf. He found a way to merge two of his passions by writing many articles about Christian pro golfers, including Tom Lehman, Steve Jones and Kermit Zarley.

A memorial service will be held at 11 a.m. Thursday in Wheaton Bible Church, 27W500 North Ave., West Chicago.