Adams, 52, had been to a meeting in Kahuku for one of a number of community service organizations he helped, the Bobby Benson Foundation, his business partner Jody Schucart said today.

His car veered off the right shoulder of Kamehameha Highway about 9:45 p.m. and slammed into a parked backhoe near Ke Nui Road, police said. The car had been heading toward Haleiwa.

Speed is believed to be a factor in the crash and Adams was not wearing a seat belt, police said. He died at the scene of massive head injuries and compound fractures, police said. "He was very involved in the community," said Schucart, president of Luggage Inc., who had worked at Pocketbook Man since 1980 and was Adams' partner when the two bought the business from Duty Free Shoppers in 1987.

"He was very active in the Public School Foundation of Hawaii. He spent a lot of time with that organization," she said, as well as with the Bobby Benson Foundation, which operates a rehabilitation center in Kahuku for young drug users. "He adored his family. He had three children and spent a lot of time, as much time as he could, with them taking them on hikes and so on," Schucart said.

A Marine Corps veteran who served in Vietnam, Adams worked for Duty Free Shoppers for 14 years in Guam, Hong Kong, Alaska, San Francisco and Hawaii before he and Schucart bought Pocketbook Man.