William L. Bradley

The Rev. Dr. William Lee Bradley, President Emeritus of the Edward W. Hazen Foundation, died in Concord, New Hampshire at Havenwood-Heritage Heights Health Services Center on April 29, surrounded by his family. Born in Oakland, California, on September 6, 1918 to Kathryn Lee Culver and Dwight Jaques Bradley, he was raised in Santa Fe, NM, Webster Groves, MO, and Newton Centre, MA, he was married to the former Paula Anne Elliott, a former New Hampshire State Representative (1992-98; 2000-02). In addition to his wife, he is survived by three sons, James Choukas-Bradley (Melanie) of Chevy Chase, MD, Dwight Bradley (Lauren) of Chugiak, AK, and Paul Bradley (Robert Abel) of New York, NY, and a stepbrother, Royal Whiting, of Newtown, CT, and four grandchildren. He was predeceased by his parents and his sisters Jacqueline Bradley and Margaret Bradley Arnold. Dr. Bradley received his B.A. from Oberlin College, B.D. from Andover Newton Theological School, and Ph.D. from Edinburgh University, Scotland. He served as a Sergeant in the United States Army Air Corps in World War II, serving in the South Pacific. A fifth-generation ordained minister in the United Church of Christ, he served as a Professor at Hartford Seminary, Hartford, CT, a Visiting Professor at Thammasat University, Bangkok, Thailand, and Associate Director for the Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences of The Rockefeller Foundation, New York, NY, before becoming President of the Edward W. Hazen Foundation in New Haven, CT. In Bangkok, he served on the field staff of The Rockefeller Foundation and conducted research on his famed ancestor, Dr. Dan Beach Bradley, the first medical missionary to Siam and court physician to King Mongkut and his son, King Chulalongkorn. At The Rockefeller Foundation, he was particularly proud of his work assisting emerging playwrights and theatres in the heydey of the Off-Off-Broadway theatre movement in New York City in the late 1960s and early 1970s. In Connecticut, he served on the Governor's Commission on Human Services, the Governor's Commission on Libraries, and the Governor's Commission on Equity and Excellence in Education. Following his retirement from the Hazen Foundation, he and the future Representative Bradley moved to Randolph, NH where both became active in that community, co-founding and serving as the first editor of the Mountain View, a quarterly news magazine in Randolph, served as President of the Randolph Foundation, and continued his lifelong activity in Democratic Party politics on the local and statewide level. He was the author of several books, including P.T. Forsyth: The Man and His Work, The Meaning of Christian Values Today, Introduction to Comparative Religion, and Siam Then: The Foreign Colony in Bangkok Before and After Anna. He served on many boards and committees, including those of Hartford Seminary, Circle Repertory Theatre, Coos County Democrats, Gorham Library, Northern Forest Heritage Park, the North Country Council, the Randolph Foundation (President, 1991-96), the Randolph Mountain Club, the Randolph Church, Mountain View Publications, Obor Inc., the Council on Foundations, the New York Regional Association of Grantmakers, and was a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and Rotary International. Memorial services will be held at 2 p.m. on Wednesday, May 2 at Gorham Congregational Church, Gorham, NH, and in July at the Randolph Church, Randolph, NH. Memorial gifts may be sent to the William L. Bradley Scholarship Fund, New York Theological Seminary, 475 Riverside Drive, Suite 500, New York, NY 10115, or the Randolph Foundation, P.O. Box 283, Gorham, NH 03581. The Bryant Funeral Home, Gorham, NH, is in charge of the arrangements.