Reed H. Bradford

Reed H. Bradford was a long-time sociology professor at Brigham Young University, where he had been chairman of the Department of Sociology and acting dean of the College of Humanities and Social Sciences.

Bradford was the recipient of a Distinguished Service Award, the Professor of the Year Award in 1959, and the Karl G. Maeser Award for Career Teaching Excellence in 1967. He was named Distinguished Sociologist of 1981 by his colleagues in the Utah Sociological Society.

He helped establish the Timpanogos Mental Health Center and served as a member of its advisory board for 20 years. For nine years he hosted a program on radio station KSRR in Orem. He was program director for the Golden Kiwanis Club of Provo.

He was born in Spanish Fork, Utah, on April 10, 1912. He earned his bachelor’s degree from BYU and a master’s degree in sociology from Louisiana State University. He also earned both master’s and doctorate degrees in sociology from Harvard University.

Bradford was a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and served in many capacities, including Sunday School general board, Adult Correlation Committee, and as a patriarch at the Missionary Training Center.

He also served a mission in Germany. In 1933, four men viciously beat and kicked him because he had declined to salute the swastika flag of Nazi Germany. He was saved from death because two Germans pointed out to the Gestapo police who were beating him that he was an American.[1] His experience is retold in his short book, A Teacher’s Quest.

His first wife, Nora, died after just over five years of marriage. Later he and his second wife, Shirley, had seven children. When he was sixty-years-old and Shirley was forty-seven, they adopted two children.

He died on October 4, 1994, from an eleven-year battle with liver cancer.