The death of the president and chief operating officer of Morrison Knudsen Corp. and his wife Sunday in a private plane crash in southeast Missouri has left leaders in the engineering and construction industry numb, as well as the citizens of Boise.
Frank M. Adams and his wife, Novella, died Sunday when their private plane crashed in a wooded area of southeast Missouri. Morrison Knudsen is one of the world's largest publicly traded engineering and construction firms."Witnesses heard a loud noise and saw a plane come out of the clouds without its wings," Missouri Highway Patrol Sgt. J.W. Burford said. He said the Adamses, both 64, were declared dead at the scene. There were no other passengers.
The trooper said the wings of the single-engine Piper PA-46 were located about 300 yards south of the plane's fuselage. There were no storms in the area, but skies were heavily overcast, authorities said.
Officials said Adams had filed a flight plan calling for the plane to fly from Tennessee to Colorado on Sunday and on to Boise Monday. Jess Hawley, MK spokesman, said the couple was en route to Boise from a vacation home in St. Simons Island, Ga.
"For nearly 20 years, Frank was my very close business associate and the most dedicated executive I have known," said William Agee, chairman and chief executive officer of Morrison Knudsen. "He and Novie were also our family's very close personal friends.
Mary Kayser, wife of recently retired MK executive Donald Kayser, said Novella was a good friend. "I will really miss her."
Donald Kayser said the crash was surprising. "Frank was always a very careful and conservative flyer."
Kayser, who retired from MK in February, said he hesitated to speculate what Frank Adams' death would mean to the company, "but any time you lose a senior executive . . . it has to be a blow to the organization."
Boise Mayor Dirk Kempthorne said Adams "was just a tremendous individual who had so much to offer the community. While he was certainly busy in his role at MK, he was making so many wonderful efforts to contribute to this community. This is very, very sad for the community."
Adams recently was named chairman of the sponsorship committee of the USS Boise submarine now under construction in Newport News, Va., that is expected to be commissioned in October.