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Professor of Politics Adam Carrington’s recent cancer diagnosis has not stopped his devotion to his faith, his family, or his students.
“He is a ‘put your oxygen mask on last’ kind of guy,” his wife, Emily Carrington, said.
Visiting Assistant Professor of History Miles Smith, a close friend and colleague of Carrington, said although the diagnosis has interrupted the family’s daily life, Carrington remains unafraid.
“The amazing thing about Adam is that he is completely at peace with his disease. There is no sense of fearfulness.”
Adam Carrington has worked at Hillsdale College since 2014, but first got interested in studying politics when he read Newt Gingrich’s “To Renew America” in the 5th grade, he said.
“The fact that politics was more about ideas than elections was brought home to me for the first time by that book,” Carrington said.
He later went on to work as an intern for a think tank in Washington, D.C., and earned degrees at Baylor University and Ashland University before he eventually started working at Hillsdale College.
“ By the time I got to grad school, I was very committed to the liberal arts tradition, and wanted to teach at a small liberal arts college.”
Carrington said he would always remember his interview with College President Larry Arnn.
“As most people will find when interacting with him, he did most of the talking. I was inspired by that conversation,” Carrington said. “He said they want to be the best at what they do. The college had a clear mission and that impressed me.”
Carrington said he has a special fascination with the U.S. Supreme Court. This emphasis informs the way he approaches teaching his classes, he said.
“To me, Supreme Court cases are where the political rubber meets the road,” Carrington said. “You get to see what political ideas look like drawn out as policies that have affected someone’s life.”
Smith said that as a colleague, Carrington is “completely chill.”
“There’s no sharp edge on Dr. Carrington,” Smith said. “At the same time, he is a brilliant academic.”
Smith and Carrington have collaborated in writing a book chapter about Protestant intellectual, social, and political thought. They have also formed a close friendship.
“Early on, we bonded over our common experience of being graduate students in Texas, and talked a lot about what it means to be a Christian,” Smith said. “His faith is very important to him. He is very easy to talk to about heavy things and has helped me to understand what real humility looks like.”
Smith also described Carrington as a devoted family man. Carrington and his wife, Emily, have two daughters, Abigail (4) and Eliza (1).
“His daughters climb all over him,” Smith said. “It’s a huge part of who he is.”
The couple met during their undergraduate years at Ashland University. It was not love at first sight, Carrington said.
“I actually helped set her up with a friend,” Carrington said. “I did a really good job with it, too. It didn’t wind up working out for some reason.”
They started dating after sharing a table in a Western Political Thought class. Following Emily’s graduation, the two were married.
“One of my first memories of him was his performance in the Mr. University pageant,” Emily Carrington said. “I had no interest in him at the time, but I thought it was totally unjust that he didn’t win. Adam’s entire performance in all three rounds was much more clever and better executed than other contestants. I have very clear memories of him in a choir robe with a plunger and a crown for his formalwear round.”
Carrington’s dedication to his faith and his family is one of his distinguishing characteristics as well, she said.
“He has a reputation for being a serious Christian and an all around good guy,” Emily Carrington said. “When our oldest daughter was very sick, he was the one to sit with her night after night. I had to be busy doing something – changing sheets, cleaning, tending, but sitting with the sick child who I could not help was really hard for me. He would simply hold her and be there. That is who he is as a dad and as a husband.”
In the fall of 2021, Carrington was diagnosed with cancer. Yet, he continues to sing to his daughters every night.
“I am committed to being here for you. I won’t miss a day if I can help it,” he told his students just after he received the diagnosis.
“There is a quote by Ernest Hemingway that describes Adam in a single phrase,” Smith said. “‘Courage is grace under pressure.’ That is who he is, and who he has continued to be in his battle with this disease.”
