This year, SCAD President and Founder Paula S. Wallace inducted five new women into the Savannah Women of Vision, a program that celebrates key female figures whose ideas, leadership and service have shaped the community of Savannah. This weekly column will attempt to share a little more of the stories behind each of the fifteen women whose gold portraits hang on either side of the Arnold Hall Theater.
Emma Morel Adler is a Savannah native, born in the historic district in 1930. She went to the Pape School in Savannah and then attended the Westover School in Middlebury, Connecticut. After, she graduated from Bryn Mawr with degrees in French, history of art and architecture in 1952.
After graduation, she worked for “Savannah News Press” as a reporter, and married Leopold “Leo” Adler in September 1953. The couple began to work together on their shared passion of historic preservation, serving as trustees of the Historic Savannah Foundation, a organization of which Emma’s mother-in-law had been a founding member. Emma worked with foundation to create a Georgia Day celebration in the city. Her efforts lead to what we now celebrate as Georgia Heritage Week. For their work, Leo and Emma received the HSF Davenport Trophy in 1968. They also welcomed two sons into the world, Leopold III and John.
Emma won a position on the Chatham-Savannah School Board in 1974. During her time serving on the board, she turned her focus on the preservation of the Massie School which had become too small to serve students successfully in 1974. Working with former School Board President Saxon Pope Bargeron, she developed the Friends of Massie Committee and was elected to serve as the board representative. The committee decided to turn the school into a heritage center with a focus on educating Savannah teachers and students about Savannah’s history. In 1978, the Massie Heritage Center opened and continues to educate the public on the history of the city.
She joined forces with Leo in several renovation projects across town, including that of the Lucas Theatre. In 2002, the two received the “Distinguished Georgian Award” and Emma was among the three women given the Governor’s Award in the Humanities. After her husband’s death on January 29,. 2012, the Historic Savannah Foundation established the Lee and Emma Adler Award Preservation Advocacy, ensuring that the couple’s legacy lasted not only in the landmarks they helped to preserve but in the people who continued to look after them.
Elena Burnett is the Editor-in-Chief of District. She’s a writing major who will graduate in 2019.
