A university professor who had been criticized by his own university for “vile” and “hateful” statements was found dead inside his North Carolina home less than two weeks before his planned retirement, authorities said on Friday.
The death of Professor Mike Adams of the University of North Carolina, Wilmington, was discovered after a friend who had not seen or heard from him “in a couple of days” called the New Hanover County Sheriff’s Office on Thursday and asked officers to keep an eye on him, Sheriff’s Deputy Jerry Brewer told NBC News.
Brewer declined to elaborate on a possible cause of death, but said there was no immediate evidence of foul play. Adams lived alone.
“We are saddened to share the news that the New Hanover County Sheriff’s Office is conducting a death investigation involving Dr. Mike Adams, a professor of criminology,” the university said in a statement Thursday. “Please keep your friends and loved ones in your thoughts.”
Adams, who taught sociology and criminology, was a lightning rod because of his racist and sexist tweets and other comments, including Muslims, gays, and efforts to combat the coronavirus.
His long history of commenting on women, minorities, and others led the university on June 5 to call his language “hateful,” “unpleasant,” and “vile.” This was followed weeks later, on June 29, by an announcement that Adams had decided to retire on August 1.
Among the professor’s recent statements was his comparison of North Carolina Governor Roy Cooper’s efforts to curb the coronavirus with that of a slave master, tweeting on May 29: “I had pizza tonight and drank beer with six men in a six-seat table. “I almost felt like a free man who didn’t live in the slave state of North Carolina. Massa Cooper, let my people go! “
Earlier this year, Adams scoffed at women’s studies as “nonessential” and called civil rights protesters “thugs.”
In 2016 Adams used an ultra-conservative opinion site to target a student at his school with an article titled “A Queer Muslim Jihad.”
In 2013, he said that gay couples should not receive the same treatment “because they do not equally benefit society.”
