Emma Morel Adler is thoroughly associated with Georgia, especially Savannah. Born in 
1930 in a long line of Savannahians, she departed her home city only for her secondary 
and post-secondary education. Offered a position as a French translator in Washington, 
DC, after college, she instead returned home to take her place among the city’s leading 
families. She represented Savannah to Georgia, the U.S., and the world, advocating for 
historic preservation, history and heritage education, character education and school 
ethics, and Savannah’s urban plan. Critical of the city when criticism was warranted, 
she nevertheless championed Savannah and Georgia for all her 90 years.

Emma Morel was educated in Savannah and the Northeast, attending elementary 
school at the Pape School, a historic Savannah institution, followed by Westover School 
in Middlebury, Connecticut. Her higher education at Bryn Mawr College consisted of 
degrees in French and art and architectural history. These degrees prepared Emma 
Morel to be an inquisitive, engaged woman of her generation and class. The 
architecture dimension of her preparation was custom-made to support her advocacy 
for her historic city. She complemented her undergraduate degrees with additional 
coursework at Savannah’s Armstrong State College in museum and preservation 
studies, affording her indispensable knowledge and best practices for her work in 
Savannah’s history, architecture, and preservation.

Immersed in and identified with Savannah’s National Historic Landmark District, Emma 
Morel Adler worked for its preservation and the integrity of its urban design. She 
purchased (along with her husband Lee Adler) an 1850s home in an era when 
gentrification had not yet made downtown Savannah a desirable place to live. Aligning 
their home with their preservation ethic, they set in motion the revival of the 
neighborhood they would occupy for the rest of their lives. Although preservation began 
“at home,” Emma Adler “talked preservation” far beyond Savannah, including to public 
figures such as Eudora Welty, Jimmy and Rosalyn Carter, and Charles, Prince of Wales, 
among others.

In the neighborhood adjacent to her home stood the old Massie School, an 1850s 
institution where both Emma and Lee’s fathers had studied. Dilapidated by the 1970s, 
the school stood forlorn until Emma Adler cooperated with the public schools to restore 
Massie into a teaching museum. She worked with historians and museum 
professionals to create permanent teaching installations about Savannah’s Town Plan, 
Savannah’s architecture, and Savannah’s historic preservation movement. She 
oversaw the creation of a “heritage classroom” where children would learn about 
nineteenth-century schooling. Later she spearheaded another installation about 
Georgia’s Native American history. Children and adults alike still visit Massie to learn 
about the city’s history.

Heritage and character education were equally Emma Adler’s passions. She fostered 
Georgia Day, an annual celebration of Georgia’s founding. Under her leadership, 
Georgia Day became Georgia Week, which grew into the Georgia Heritage Celebration. 
Today her work survives in the form of the Georgia History Festival, with its annual 
focus on Georgia history featuring curricular components for the state’s teachers and 
educational experiences for students in Savannah and throughout Georgia.

Emma Adler assisted her husband in founding the Ossabaw Island Foundation in 1993, 
dedicated to preserving and sharing this important site on Georgia’s coast. Emma Adler 
served as secretary, and in the same year, she founded the “Friends of Ossabaw” 
(FOO), modeled after her successful “Friends of Massie.” At the helm of FOO, Emma 
Adler raised thousands of dollars for the fledgling nonprofit, increasing its membership 
from zero to 200 individuals and families in two years. Although no longer a separate 
organization, what began as Emma’s typed list of a few hundred visitors and supporters
is today a robust 4,300 constituents representing all 50 states.

Other opportunities for leadership include the institutions to which she devoted time and 
talent: Historic Savannah Foundation, Bethesda Home for Boys, the Savannah Council 
on World Affairs, the Junior League of Savannah, the Lucas Theatre for the Arts, the 
National Society of The Colonial Dames of America in the State of Georgia, the Georgia 
Humanities Council, and the National Federation of State Humanities Councils.

Her interests and opinions on various topics found voice in prolific letters to the editor. 
The Savannah Morning News was her most frequent outlet, but she would also stop in 
Forsyth Park to persuade friends to her strong opinions, even as she walked any of a 
long succession of beloved dogs with whom she shared her home.

Although Emma Adler called on people in her closest circles to work on the projects 
dictated by her passions, her efforts (and theirs) had ramifications far beyond the inner 
orbit. Savannah’s Town Plan remains largely intact, enjoyed by thousands daily 
including Savannah residents, professionals, students, and visitors. Massie Heritage 
Center has been educating students and adults, Savannahians and visitors alike, for 
almost fifty years. Heritage education (Georgia Day) and character education programs 
in Chatham County schools, championed by Emma Adler, have inculcated systems of 
civic virtue and an ethos of ethics in generations of students who carry those virtues 
with them, whether in Georgia or far away. The same is true of Bethesda Academy 
(formerly Home for Boys), as it continues to shape young lives. Historic Savannah 
Foundation remains a leading voice, modeling historic preservation education and 
advocacy across the U.S. Emma Adler’s efforts may have started “at home,” but their 
ripples reach far and wide.