David T. Adams, 83; Pyramid Films Founder Made Educational Movies

David T. Adams, 83, a film producer who founded Pyramid Films Corp., which produces and distributes short films on a range of subjects, died Oct. 8 of congestive heart failure at his home in Henderson, Nev., according to Randolph Wright, the company’s president.

From the time Adams founded his company in Santa Monica in 1960, he specialized in health and education films. “Pulse of Life,” which he produced, was one of the first cardiopulmonary resuscitation training films for laypeople, Wright said in an interview this week. It has been used in training programs around the world, he said.

Adams received Academy Award nominations for several short films he co-produced, including “Solo” (1972), about mountain climbing, and “The Legend of John Henry” (1973), based on the story of the African American folk hero.

Through the 1960s he built Pyramid into a successful name among distributors of short, nontheatrical films.

Born David Telfer Adams in Toronto on Sept. 5, 1923, he was a World War II veteran who served in the Royal Canadian Air Force in the 1940s.

He went on to graduate from art school in Vancouver and began a career as a painter. He also produced “That They May Live,” an early educational film about CPR, before he moved to Santa Monica to pursue his film career.

Adams became a U.S. citizen in the 1990s.

He retired to Henderson about six years ago and continued painting.