● Meals on wheels in Charlotte-Mecklenburg ●
Tom Bradbury helped create Friendship Trays
Sept. 9, 2010
Paul Thomas Bradbury, 67, died Monday in Marietta, Ga. where he had lived for some years.
In the early 1970s, it was Bradbury who joined others in the Elizabeth neighborhood to create the service that would become Friendship Trays.
Friendship Trays has established the Tom Bradbury Program Development Fund and will assign to the fund all donations made in Tom's memory.
Friendship Trays would also welcome written reflections from friends of Friendship Trays on Tom and his contribution to this meals-on-wheels program. E-mail those reflections to Executive Director Lucy Bush Carter.
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The family issued the following obituary. It is also available here.
Paul Thomas (Tom) Bradbury died September 8, 2010 after a long battle with Progressive Suprarnuclear Palsy (PSP), a rare brain disease. He was 67.
Tom was a journalist during most of his career and worked for The Charlotte News and The Charlotte Observer for more than 30 years, serving as an associate editor and editor of the editorial pages.
He won numerous editorial writing awards and specialized in education, urban planning, and local history. In 1999 he retired from journalism and served as president of the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Education Foundation.
He and his wife Marilyn moved to the Atlanta area in 2002 where Tom became vice president for communications for the Southern Regional Education Board until his illness was diagnosed.
While living in Charlotte, Tom was asked to author a book for the centennial of Dilworth (1991), Charlotte's first streetcar suburb where he and his family lived. He researched and wrote a history of the neighborhood entitled Dilworth: The First Hundred Years.
Tom was involved in numerous civic affairs and was most proud of helping Ann Elliot found Friendship Trays in Charlotte, a meals-on-wheels and visitation program for the elderly and homebound. He served as a board member and volunteer meal deliverer for many years.
He was a member of the vestry and parish council at St. Martin's Episcopal Church in Charlotte. He was also a member of the Charlotte World Affairs Council and served in the U. S. Coast Guard Reserve.
Tom graduated from The Westminster Schools in Atlanta where he was valedictorian of his class. He earned his bachelor's degree from Duke University where he was an Angier B. Duke Scholar.
Tom (K4OZF) had a lifelong interest in amateur (ham) radio. He held an extra-class license, the highest rank, and was adept at sending Morse code. He was a volunteer in Charlotte at the Discovery Place Ham Radio Room, at SciTrek in Atlanta, and was also a member of the Kennehoochee Amateur Radio Club.
Tom married Marilyn Mayes Bradbury, a fellow journalist he met in Charlotte, and they celebrated 40 years of marriage in January. They have two grown children and two grandchildren. John Charles Bradbury is an associate professor at Kennesaw State University and lives in Marietta, GA with his wife Rachael and two daughters, Rebekah Bowman Bradbury and Sarah Martin Bradbury. Tom and Marilyn's daughter is Elizabeth Hamilton of San Mateo, CA and is married to Ryan K. Hamilton.
Tom was born in Chattanooga, TN on September 4, 1943, the first child of the late John Scholars Bradbury and the late Sarah Frances (Polly) Ramsey Bradbury. Surviving siblings are: Robert E. Bradbury of Fort Worth, TX; The Rev. William J. Bradbury of New Bedford, MA; Mary Jo Bryan of Atlanta; and Andrew J. Bradbury of Atlanta.
Arrangements will be handled by Mayes Ward-Dobbins Funeral Home in Marietta, GA.
A memorial service will be held 3:00 PM Saturday, September 11, 2010 at St. James' Episcopal Church, 161 Church Street 30060 in Marietta. The family will receive guests afterwards in the Fellowship Hall.
The family requests that in lieu of flowers memorials be sent to Friendship Trays, 2401-A Distribution Street, Charlotte, NC 20203 or CurePSP, Executive Plaza III, 11350 McCormick Road, Suite 906, Hunt Valley, MD 21031.