John Nathan Adams, track coach and snowboard instructor, becomes fourth victim of Aug. 9 Bishop crash

October 15, 2010

John Nathan Adams died as a result of injuries he suffered August 9 in a horrific crash south of Bishop that also killed 3 others. / Internet Photo

John Nathan Adams, the popular track and snowboarding coach who was hospitalized after the horrific Aug. 9 triple-fatal crash in Bishop, died on Saturday as a result of his injuries, his family announced.

On Friday, Adams’ family posted a notice on the website CaringBridge.com that family members had decided to end Adams’s life support at Renown Regional Medical Center in Reno.

He passed away surrounded by his family.

Adams, a resident of Cardiff in Southern California, had many friends in Mammoth, including Stuart and Julie Brown, who gave him a sendoff from Mammoth shortly before the crash. Adams was 39 at the time of the crash.

Funeral services had not been set by press time, but Brown said it is possible that there will a celebration of life ceremony of some sort in Mammoth in the near future.

“Because this area meant so much to him,” Brown said, “there seems to be a consensus to do something here.”

He also said it’s possible that a memorial bench of some sort may be placed in Mammoth.
If that comes to pass, Brown said his friends will have to decide between “John Nathan Adams” or “Nathan John Adams.”

Adams’s actual first name is Nathan, but when the paperwork was prepared for him to join the instructional staff at Mammoth Mountain Ski Area, his name was transposed.

“He just didn’t do anything about it, so he just became John to us. If you ask his family in Texas, he’s Nathan,” Brown said.

The family ended Adams’ life support two months to the day from the accident.