GARDNER, Bradley Charles, Jr.

Today's News-Herald, Lake Havasu City, Arizona - Published Sunday, February 20, 2011 > Bradley Charles Gardner, Jr. < > Jan. 2, 1916 — Feb. 16, 2011 < Brad Gardner always claimed he was a very lucky man. He often pointed to three examples of his luck. The first two were his marriages to very special women: Gertrude (Jenss) Gardner and Margot (Sobey) Gardner. The third was meeting an Army Reserve Recruiter as he was leaving the regular Army in 1946. The recruiter asked if he would like to join the Army Reserve. Brad thought about his rise from a raw recruit to Captain and decided it would be a waste to walk away. So, he signed up. Thirty years later, he retired from the Reserves as a Lt. Colonel. Bradley Charles Gardner, Jr. was born in Chicago, Ill., in 1916, the son of Bessie (Barker) and Bradley Charles Gardner. He was the first of four children. (His siblings: John R. Gardner, Ann Gardner Lorimier and Judith Gardner Downs, predeceased him.) He attended Morgan Park High School and the University of Illinois, graduating with a B.S. in ceramics engineering in 1937. He was a member of the Delta Tau Delta Fraternity. He worked in the Ceramics field until he was drafted into the Army in 1941, before Pearl Harbor. As a graduate engineer, he was recruited into Officer Candidate School. For the remainder of the war, he was stationed at the Aberdeen Proving Ground, in Maryland. In 1943, he met and married Gertrude Jenss. They had two daughters, Katharine Gardner Cipolla and Jessica Ann Conaway, and a son Bradley Charles III, who died as a child. After the war, the family moved to Youngstown N.Y. Brad worked in local industry and eventually became involved in the world of automation. As an independent consultant, he designed factories for new industrial processes - some of them prize winning. Widowed in 1970, he remained in New York State until for health reasons, he moved to Lake Havasu City in 1977. His luck held. Within a week, he met Dr. Margot Sobey, a local physician, talented artist, and duplicate bridge player. Within a year, they were married. Brad and Margot traveled the world until shortly before her death in 2000. While they were at home in Lake Havasu City, they were avid bridge players. Brad took part in adult education courses at the Community College. Brad was a founding member of Grace Episcopal Church, joining the congregation when it consisted of a few people meeting in the Lietz-Fraize Funeral Home. He was a member of the church building committee and a perennial member of clergy search committees. He was a faithful member of the parish’s Saturday evening congregation so he could watch the “talking heads” on Sunday morning television. In March 2006, after a health crisis, Brad reluctantly decided to move to assisted living in Massachusetts, near his daughter, Katharine. In his new situation, he learned to access his beloved Chicago Cubs on the Internet, read books provided by the local library, watched “Great Courses in History” on DVD, joined a men’s discussion group, and enjoyed a social life at his daughter’s house until another health crisis in July 2010 forced him to transfer to a skilled nursing facility, where passed away Feb. 16. Brad is survived by his daughters, Katharine G. Cipolla, of Boston, and Jessica A. Conaway, of Baltimore; and three grandchildren, Jenelle K., Nolan B., and Caroline J. Conaway, all of Baltimore. There will be a memorial service for Brad at Grace Church in Lake Havasu City Saturday at 5:30 p.m., and another at Church of Our Savior, Brookline, Mass., March 12 at 10:30 a.m. Contributions in lieu of flowers may be made to his favorite charities: Building Fund: Grace Episcopal Church, Lake Havasu City, AZ., The American Farmland Trust (www.farmland.org), The National Audubon Society (www.audubon.org), The Nature Conservancy (www.nature.org), The Ocean Conservancy (www.oceanconservancy.org).