During the depths of the Great Depression a handsome and gifted seventeen-year-old high school athlete saw his future shattered when his neck was broken in a football game. Few at the time thought the honor student, Eagle Scout, editor of his school paper, and president of his class every year since the seventh grade would survive. But John Allen Adams did survive and was able to adapt to his severe handicap and go on to lead a remarkably successful life. His story, woven from important strands of Arkansas and American history, reaches far beyond the community of Arkadelphia in which he lived. But while family history provides a dramatic backdrop for his story it cannot account for the remarkable character of John Allen Adams, a skilled poet and a tireless worker for world peace who found within himself the resources to build a life that made a difference, a difference reflected in the testimonies and memories of those whose lives he touched.