Grant Adamson, a descendant of Malibu’s founding Rindge family, was killed early Tuesday morning when a hot air balloon carrying him and his family crashed near the western Swiss town of Montbovon. Adamson’s wife Terry, 55, and his daughters Lauren and Megan, 24 and 20, suffered serious injuries in the crash.
Lauren and Megan Adamson each underwent successful surgeries for unspecified injuries after the accident, according to Kristen London, a niece of Grant Adamson. They are both expected to make full recoveries. Terry Adamson was expected to undergo surgery for unspecified injuries “within the next 48 hours,” London told The Malibu Times on Tuesday afternoon. She could not elaborate further on Terry’s condition.
Police in the Swiss state of Fribourg said Adamson, 55, died at the scene when the balloon fell 165 feet after crashing into an electric power line while attempting to land at 8:35 a.m., after a two-hour flight from the town of Chateau-d’Oex, according to the Associated Press.
Terry Adamson and her two daughters were airlifted to the hospital. A 65-year-old pilot was also seriously injured and taken to the hospital by ambulance.
Grant Adamson was an owner of the Mariposa Land Company, which managed the family’s real estate holdings, and a founding member of Pepperdine University’s Crest Board, among other community involvements. He and his family resided in Serra Retreat.
Before retiring in 2007, Terry Adamson served as a commissioner at the Malibu Courthouse for 17 years. She served as an adjunct professor and distinguished jurist in residence at Pepperdine’s School of Law.
Megan Adamson is currently a junior at Pepperdine University’s Seaver College and Lauren Adamson is an MBA candidate at Pepperdine’s Graziadio School of Business, according to Heidi Bernard, executive director of Pepperdine’s Crest Associates. Lauren completed her undergraduate studies at Santa Clara University and is scheduled to complete her MBA program in 2014, Bernard said.
The great-grandson of Frederick and Rhoda May Rindge, who in 1892 purchased the land that is now Malibu, Grant Adamson descended from a family known as Malibu’s founders.
Grant’s grandparents, Rhoda May and Merritt Adamson, constructed the famous Adamson House on 13 acres nestled between the Malibu Pier and Malibu Lagoon. The Adamsons and Rindges made many lasting contributions to Malibu. In 1968 Rhoda May Adamson donated 132 acres of the Adamson and Rindge family’s ranch land to Pepperdine University, where the school eventually opened its campus overlooking the Pacific Ocean in 1972.
Grant’s father, Merritt Adamson Jr., was the son of Rhoda and Merritt Adamson. He died in 1986.
Grant and Terry Adamson met in college at the University of California, San Diego 36 years ago and were married for 29 years, according to an interview with Malibu Times Magazine in 2012.
Jeff Follert, who has lived next door to the Adamsons for 13 years in Serra Retreat, recalled Grant as an unassuming, soft-spoken man who coveted privacy.
“He came from a very well-known and influential family,” Follert said Tuesday. “He really never sort of wore that as a flag … Really a loving, wonderful man.”
Follert said the Adamsons had been out of town for “a few weeks” and travelled frequently.
“They still managed to bond together as a family and travel together as a family,” Follert said.
Grant Adamson is survived by his wife, daughters, mother Sharon Gee, sister Leslie London, brother Rindge Adamson and several nieces and nephews.
