Patch Adams facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Patch Adams
Adams in 2009
Born	Hunter Doherty Adams (1945-05-28) May 28, 1945 (age 78) Washington, D.C., U.S.
Education	Virginia Commonwealth University (MD)
Occupation	Physician, comedian, social activist, clown, author
Spouse(s)	Linda Edquist ​ ​ (m. 1975; div. 1998)​ Susan Parenti ​ ​ (m. 2010)​
Children	2

Hunter Doherty "Patch" Adams (born May 28, 1945) is an American physician, comedian, social activist, clown, and author. He founded the Gesundheit! Institute in 1971. Each year he also organizes volunteers from around the world to travel to various countries where they dress as clowns to bring humor to orphans, patients, and other people.

Adams is currently based in Urbana, Illinois. In collaboration with the institute, he promotes an alternative health care model not funded by insurance policies.

Early life

Adams was born in Washington, D.C., the son of Anna Campbell Stewart (née Hunter) and Robert Loughridge Adams. His maternal grandfather, Thomas Lomax Hunter, was a Poet Laureate of Virginia. His father, a United States Army officer who fought in Korea, died while stationed in Germany when Adams was only 16. After his father's death, Adams returned to the United States with his mother and brother. Adams has stated that upon his return he encountered racism and segregation amongst his peers which he stood and spoke up against it, which made him a target for bullies at school. ....."

Early career

After graduating in 1963 from Wakefield High School, Adams completed pre-med coursework at George Washington University. He began medical school without an undergraduate degree, and earned his Doctor of Medicine degree at Virginia Commonwealth University (Medical College of Virginia) in 1971. In the late 1960s one of his closest friends was murdered by a deranged patient. Convinced of the powerful connection between environment and wellness, he believes the health of an individual cannot be separated from the health of the family, community, and the world.

The Gesundheit! Institute

Soon after graduation, Patch, his wife, Linda, and friends founded The Gesundheit! Institute (originally as the Zanies), which ran as a communal "home" from 1971 to 1984. Based in Adams' rural West Virginia property, the institute has since been devoted to fundraising. The latest plan is for a 44-bed community hospital building that will offer free holistic care to "anyone who wants it," along with a teaching facility that can accommodate "120 staff, all living together in the communal ecovillage."

Fees from the 1998 movie "made it possible to build three beautiful buildings...in preparation for the big buildings we want for the hospital." These are a farmhouse, workshop, and dacha that accommodate the workshops and courses offered by the institute. The educational philosophy is contained in their "School for Designing a Society (SDaS) - for people who want to change society by means of desire, design, and composition..." and includes courses on caring and workshops on clowning.

Adams was awarded the Peace Abbey Courage of Conscience Award on January 29, 1997

In 2008, Adams agreed to become honorary chair of the "International Association for the Advancement of Creative Maladjustment" or IAACM. MindFreedom International, a nonprofit coalition that Gesundheit! belongs to as a sponsor group, launched the IAACM to support "creative maladjustment" and social change.

Since the 1990s Adams has supported the Ithaca Health Alliance (IHA), founded as the Ithaca Health Fund (IHF) by Paul Glover. In January 2006 IHA launched the Ithaca Free Clinic, bringing to life key aspects of Adams's vision. Adams has also given strong praise to Health Democracy, Glover's book written and published the same year.

As of 2016, Adams claims to "lecture 300 days out of the year, and have done so for over 30 years in 81 countries, spreading seeds of a love revolution of enlivening community and a call to end capitalism."

Personal life

While working in an adolescent clinic at MCV, in his final year of med school, he met Linda Edquist, a fellow VCU student who volunteered in the clinic. Adams and Edquist married in 1975 and had two sons, Atomic Zagnut "Zag" Adams and Lars Zig Edquist Adams; they divorced in 1998.

In March 2021, Adams announced that his left foot had been amputated in a below-the-knee amputation due to persistent problems from an MRSA infection.

See also

In Spanish: Patch Adams para niños

• Slow medicine
• Narrative medicine
• Clown Care
• Humor research