Patricia Pray Bradley, 97, died peacefully on June 8, 2017 at the North Hill Senior Living Community in Needham, Massachusetts. She was the beloved wife of the late Dr. Robert H. Bradley, Jr. They were married for 63 years.
In the years prior to her death, she described herself as a very fortunate woman, having lived for more than nine decades, married to a wonderful man, nurtured by a loving family, and having the opportunity to use her talents in the service of her husband, her children, her more extended family and the broader community. She was loved for her strong interest in others, her warm outgoing nature, her ready smile, her keen intelligence, her wonderful generosity, and her kindness. She loved music, dancing, parties, books, flowers, travel and all things to do with the ocean. She was a “people person” and made friends easily.
Born in Boston in 1919, she was the daughter of Thornton C. Pray and Virginia C. Pray. Reared in Chestnut Hill, Pennsylvania, she graduated from Springside Academy in 1937 and attended Wells College in New York. Before she married Robert H. Bradley, Jr in 1942, she worked for a number of physicians, the most prominent of whom was Dr. Benjamin Spock, the author of Baby and Child Care, one of the best-selling books of all time. Returning to Chestnut Hill during World War II while her husband served as a physician in the U.S. Navy, she gave birth to three children between 1943 and 1948. When her husband set up his own medical practice, she served as his office manager for five years, while simultaneously managing the household. She felt deeply that her calling was to be a homemaker, and she devoted herself to the care of her husband and raising her three beloved children.
When her children were grown, she went to work as a librarian at Springside Academy in Chestnut Hill. She loved to read and enjoyed books of all kinds. She was especially fond of children’s books, and treasured her job as a librarian, delighting to introduce elementary and middle school girls at Springside to the joys of reading. She and her husband moved to Foulkeways Retirement Community at Gwynedd, Pennsylvania in 1995 and enjoyed ten wonderful years where they made many friends and were leaders in the community. Upon the death of her husband in 2005, she moved to North Hill to be close to her family in the Boston area. Her outgoing nature and interest in others won her many friends at North Hill during the eleven years she spent there.
She is survived by her three children, Virginia B. Clark of Gladwyne, PA.; Robert H. Bradley, III of Wellesley, and his wife, Nancy; and Peter P. Bradley, of Natick; her goddaughter, Hilda L. Armour of Devon, England; five grandchildren and seventeen great grandchildren; her brother-in-law Thomas W. Bradley and his wife, Margaret; and fifteen nieces and nephews.
A private service will be held in July. In lieu of flowers, donations may be sent to Boston Trinity Academy Scholarship Fund, 17 Hale Street, Hyde Park, Boston, MA 02136 or Springside Chestnut Hill Academy, 500 W. Willow Grove, Philadelphia, PA 19118.