Affinity Group, Good Sam Exec Steve Adams Passes Away – RVBusiness – Breaking RV Industry News
Private equity investor and philanthropist Steve Adams, 86, whose RV-related holdings included Camping World Holdings Inc. (CWHI), the nation’s largest group of RV retailers, and Good Sam Enterprises Inc., a publisher and member-based direct marketing organization catering to RV owners, passed away Thursday (March 14) after a long illness at his Connecticut home with his wife, Denise, and family members at his side.
Adams, a Minnesota native with a Yale undergraduate degree and a Stanford MBA, was more of a factor behind the scenes rather than a name in the news.
Yet he did a lot, most would agree, and was perhaps best known within the RV arena for having served as board chairman of CWHI, a public company listed on the NYSE, and its predecessors, including Affinity Group Inc (AGI) and FreedomRoads, a national grouping of RV dealers. AGI and Good Sam, a current affiliate of CWHI, were well known back in the day for their popular consumer publications including Trailer Life, MotorHome, Highways, Woodall’s and RVBusiness, a national RV trade journal sold in 2011 to G&G Media Group LLC in Elkhart, Ind. There were also powersports titles.
Adams first entered the RV industry in late 1988, acquiring a company called American Bakeries Co., the sole operating assets of which included TL Enterprises, Inc., later renamed Affinity Group, the umbrella company for the Good Sam Club, those RV consumer publications and Camp Coast to Coast, Inc., an RV timeshare firm.AGI from 1990 through 1997 acquired several other companies including Golf Card International, a membership club for golfers in 1990, in addition to Chicago-based Woodall Publishing Co, and its “Woodall’s North American Campground Directory.”
In 1995, AGI purchased 13-year-old San Francisco Thrift and Loan and moved the company’s headquarters to Ventura, Calif. In 1997, the bank was renamed Affinity Bank, and it began developing financial products for the RV market among its offerings.
In March of 1997, AGI acquired Camping World, Inc. and Ehlert Publishing, the source of numerous powersports magazines in the motorcycle, snowmobile and boating industries. After a few years, the Camping World dealer network — the largest group of U.S. RV dealers — was managed separately from the Good Sam Club and its numerous RV-related entities. Then, in 2011, both companies were merged and put under the same management team, based in Lincolnshire, Ill.
Adams, an award recipient from both Yale and Stanford, ultimately achieved much of his financial success through his acquisition, control and operation of a variety of ventures in several industries including outdoor billboard advertising, soft-drink bottling, community banking, community newspaper publishing, television and radio broadcasting in addition to RV’s.
He and Denise also shared a passion for winemaking and were the proprietors of vineyards in both California’s Napa Valley and France’s Bordeaux region, and it was reportedly a point of great pride for both of them that their vineyards utilized “bio-dynamic” agricultural techniques.
Adams is also known for his dedication to the advancement of neurosciences research and care in partnership with Yale New Haven Hospital through the construction and development of a hospital complex known as the Adams Neurosciences Center as well as Yale University through the development of the Stephen and Denise Adams Center for Parkinson’s Research.
