In Memory of John Norman Bradford

John Norman Bradford died May 21, 2016.

Gravside Services will be held at 11:00 am, Saturday, July 9, 2016 at the Ida Grove Cemetery of Ida Grove, Iowa. The Reverend Eugene Tolstedt will officiate. Inurnment will follow in the Ida Grove Cemetery of Ida Grove, Iowa. Inurnment will be in the Ida Grove Cemetery of Ida Grove, Iowa, at a later date. The Christensen-Van Houten Funeral Home of Ida Grove is in charge of arrangements. Condolences may be sent on line to www.christensenvanhouten.com.

He was born on May 28, 1931, in Carthage, Missouri, to Lynn Harvey Bradford and Mildred Enola Mayden Bradford.

His family moved around quite a bit in his early life. John lived in Belvedere and Wilmington, New Jersey, and Newark, Delaware, before moving to Staff Village near Lawrence, Kansas, during  World War II. After the war, his family moved to East Detroit, Michigan, where John graduated from high school in 1949. After a year of working at the Ford Factory, John enrolled at Kansas State University, graduating in 1954 with a degree in physics.

He served in the Army for two years before starting graduate school at Iowa State University in Ames, Iowa, where he met Phyllis Ann Cameron. On April 6, 1963, John and Phyllis were married in San Diego, California, where John was working at a Particle Accelerator. Shortly afterwards, they moved back to Ames, where John completed his graduate work and was awarded a Ph.D. in Physics in 1964.

His daughters Janet Lynn and Maggie were born in Ames. In the summer of 1965, the young family moved to Missoula, Montana, where John was an Associate Professor of Physics, followed by a two-year position in the Physics Department of Kansas State University.

In the fall of 1969, John and Phyllis moved to Lexington, Massachusetts, so John could start research work with the Air Force Geophysics Laboratory at Hanscom Air Field. Phyllis and John lived in Lexington from 1969 to 1996, connecting with several families that would help create a community to raise their children and create lifelong friendships.

Upon retiring, they moved to Southport for an enjoyable retirement playing tennis, golf and bridge with their neighbors on Beaver Creek Drive.

He will be remembered for his intelligence, dry sense of humor, love of wooden boats and Bluegrass music.

Survivors include daughters Janet Bradford of McLean, Virginia, and Margaret Bradford Pace of Wethersfield, Connecticut, two sons-in-law: Christopher Hudson and Paul Pace; four grandsons: Cameron and John Hudson and Andrew and Connor Pace; John’s brothers: Lynn Bradford and his wife Suzanne and William Bradford and his wife Kathleen; as well as several nieces and nephews.

His brother-in-law William John Cameron and his sister-in-law Joan Miller Cameron predeceased him.

The family is grateful for the many words of encouragement and visits by friends and family during the past year. In lieu of flowers, please consider making a donation to your local library.