Bob Adams, who turned 100 years old on Feb. 15, was honored with a surprise drive-by birthday parade on Feb. 14 at the Quarryville Presbyterian Retirement Community, where he resides. The parade was led by a fire truck from Union Fire Company No. 1, Oxford.

"He was outside and watched the parade go by," reported Adams' daughter Gail Miller. "All of our family and friends and church family came in their cars. It took an hour to go by. There were 30 cars and 70 people. Dad said it was biggest surprise of his life."

Adams was a professional photographer in Oxford, where he owned his own photography studio named Adams and Adams Photography. His business partner was Burrel Adams (no relation), whom he met in World War II. They partnered together until Burrel and his wife moved to a warmer climate.

Adams mostly specialized in wedding photography; he photographed more than 3,000 weddings in his lifetime. He also took many pictures for local businesses and social events.

Miller reported that her father had the privilege of photographing notable figures, including Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother and her daughter Elizabeth II, the current queen of England; four-star Gen. James H. Doolittle; Vice President Gerald Ford; Martin Luther King Jr.; Albert Einstein; musician Duke Ellington; and singer Marian Anderson.

"When he was in World War II, he was stationed in England and was a photographer for the war effort. He actually had to take pictures from airplanes. He was in the Army Air Forces," Miller explained. "His responsibility was to take photos of the bombings that we were going on against other countries. He had to lay in the belly of the plane and take photos. They needed to see if they hit their target; they did not have drones back then."

"When he worked in Oxford as the main photographer in town, he did a lot of photos for Lincoln University. That's when he (photographed) Martin Luther King and Marian Anderson," she added.

Adams was also a school bus manager for the Oxford Area School District and was a driver himself for approximately 42 years.

He was married to Mary Stilwell Adams for 68 years until her passing.

"After dad finished his tour in World War II, he sent his parachute home to his fiancee, my mom, to have her wedding dress made from the new secret material - nylon, which was made for the war effort," Miller shared. "Since nylon was a new fabric, the seamstress was afraid to work with it, but she did, and the dress turned out beautifully, covered buttons and all."

On the occasion of his birthday, Miller had the opportunity to ask her father his secret to living a long life. "He felt his secret was love. He married the love of his life, and my mom, Mary, felt the same way about him," she said. "If they ever had any type of spat, they settled it between themselves quickly. And he felt that in helping others, it showed the love of Jesus to them, which basically boomeranged back to him in love."