A Remembrance and Obituary for Joe Bradley
Vicki Ellis
1932-2020
As Joe Bradley’s quiet mightiness began to diminish the last few months before his death, I began to anticipate that he would one day leave us; when I would no longer hear the front door open, his footsteps at 7 am on the stairs to the 2nd floor prayer room at Bainbridge House nearly every morning. So when Mary Ellen asked if I would write his obituary, I was honored, but truth be told, I had already begun composing fitting phrases in my head.
I’ve had three months to reflect and ponder Joe Bradley’s life, loves and legacy; his humility and humor; his strength and commitments. We’ve participated in his memorial service and heard tributes, in word and song, from family, friends and Mary Ellen. Joe was a writer and a lover of the word. For years, he wrote the Bainbridge House annual Christmas letter. In our 2010 edition, he wrote “We cannot live outside the dominant culture, so deadly at times, but we can create some small spaces where truth can be found within.” In going through Joe’s papers and writings Mary Ellen discovered and shared these words in her own reflections at the memorial service. The letter that year ended, “Blest be the tie that binds – all of us.”
Joseph Mathias Bradley was born in the winter of 1932 to Joseph Bradley and Theresa Higgins Bradley and his older sister, Patricia, in West Orange, NJ. He grew up loving sports and went to Yankee games on the subway. He was a natural athlete and on the track team, and ran the mile. His capacity for the longer distance races would become a metaphor for his life of staying the course and playing the long game. His love of golf came by way of his dad who was the pro at the prestigious Arcola Country Club. When Joe was sixteen, his beloved father, died unexpectedly of a heart attack while at the Belmont Park Racetrack. When he told the story, Joe would recount how he died during the 7th race and Buzz Fuzz was the winner.
Joe’s ancestors on both sides emigrated from Ireland. Joe’s father’s three older brothers, died serving in WWI from the flu epidemic. Perhaps his grand parents unimaginable loss of three sons was embedded in the unconscious memory and nourished what became a life long commitment to non- violence, peace and justice.
Joe graduated from Orange High School in Orange, NJ. He attended Villanova University receiving a bachelor’s degree and then a master’s in History. Joe entered the novitiate of the Augustinians in his fourth year at Villanova-and was later ordained a priest. While an Auggie he taught at Bonner High School, and served as Athletic Director. At Villanova he taught Theology and was Director of the Campus Ministry.
Joe was deeply affected by the turbulent social change movements of the late 50s and 60s. But he attributed the most profound impact on his theological and political thinking to Dick McSorley, SJ. He left the Augustinians with a wave of others during the mid 70’s but kept a close relationship with the Order and many who stayed. He would say that the best thing he did after leaving the order was marrying Mary Ellen Sheridan in 1984. In the 90s, the Order asked Joe to be their NGO representative to the United Nations. He was at the UN in New York on September 11, 2001 and got the last train out of Manhattan to the Bronx where he stayed until he could get back to Philly.
Joe worked for the Council of Labor and Industry in Philadelphia where he developed job training and placement services in the garment industry. He also worked for DeLaSalle and for over ten years at Project HOME. He mentored students at Stanton Elementary School and coordinated the program for five of those years. He would take some of the students to his house at the beach in Strathmere and to Villanova basketball games. One of those students, Dion Waiters grew up to be a stand out star at Syracuse and is now playing for the LA Lakers.
In the 1980s, he taught theology classes to men imprisoned at Graterford and later facilitated gatherings of lifers who remember him with fondness. He was also an adviser to the Gray Panthers, a group of aging inmates - some facing life sentences without parole. These experiences caused him to be an advocate for all kinds of fairer sentencing legislation.
In 1968 he co-founded the Catholic Peace Fellowship Philadelphia chapter and celebrated its 50th anniversary in 2018. In 2000 Joe lovingly took over as editor of the bi-monthly CPF newsletter and wrote articles for each issue.
He loved serious books on religion and spirituality and was an admirer of Karl Rahner. He would say his theology was the book he was reading at the time. He read constantly, often several books at a time.
He had heart bypass surgery years ago like many men his age but always stayed ahead of the cardiology curve. He and his cardiologist would compare notes on politics as well as what was going on with his heart.
He liked to write poetry and wrote lots of it. He particularly liked poems by Wendell Berry, Denise Levertov, and Naomi Shihab Nye.
Joe and Mary Ellen traveled a lot over the years and covered some territory: Italy, Palestine/Israel, Germany, France, and Peru. He loved any coastland and enjoyed both sandy and rocky beaches from Maine to Florida.
A remembrance for Joe Bradley cannot ever be complete but a few more things need mention. Since the Iraq war started in 2003, Joe protested weekly against war and for peace with a faithful few and as John Wanenchak said in his Senryu, Joe hoped for “two fingers not one” from passing drivers. He stood for the rights of the Palestinian people when it was particularly unpopular and studied and understood the dangers of climate change. He went to Dorothy Day’s funeral. For decades he met up weekly with the same four friends at a local bar for a sandwich. He befriended Steffen Auer who did his German national service at Project HOME. They stayed friends for good after that. Over the years, he spent a lot of time in Strathmere with good friends until he and Mary Ellen brought “the price is
right” little house on Whale Beach with the ocean to the east and the bay to the west.
The Gray Panthers of Graterford/Phoenix asked Joe to be their mentor. He also received special recognition from St. Rita of Cascia in 2018. He tried Zen retreats and learned to sit a good number of hours for a beginner. Red wine and hot teas were his beverages of choice.
Joe’s introduction to Bainbridge House, a community of prayer and presence in South Philadelphia happened in 1993 when he ran into Sue Kettell at an AIDS conference. Sue invited him to our daily morning prayer and he started showing up. He never stopped coming,
Bainbridge House entrusted its annual Christmas letter to Joe’s pen. It didn’t take him long to draft it up because he would simply plumb the depths of what he happened to be pondering. They were gems and people used to call to thank him for his words.
Joe had a couple songs written about him, one for his 70th birthday and one for his 85th. He especially liked the first one, “Joe Bradley Joe,” which was a medley of his life and is set to the tune of Go Lassie Go, a Scottish folk song. It was sung at every birthday and he asked that it be sung at this funeral.
Joe’s expressed his love and gratitude to Mary Ellen, to the end. At his own and her Bainbridge House birthday celebrations Joe could be counted on always to remark with a wry smile, “in all our years of marriage, we’ve never shared a cross word.” And that was pretty nearly right. Other survivors include his four nephews, Chris, Stu, Kevin and Scott and their families and Mary Ellen’s brothers and sisters and the large and ever expanding Sheridan clan of which he deeply loved being a part.
Joe died peacefully in his home on the morning of the Feast of St. Patrick, with Mary Ellen at his bedside. It was also the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic and no funerals or church services were allowed. When it was clear that there was no end in sight for these restrictions, Mary Ellen determined that a memorial service via zoom would be planned.
And so it was on the afternoon of June 14, 2020, a zoom memorial service gathered well over 200 people with Johanna Berrigan, of the Philadelphia House of Grace Catholic Worker, as the able and loving presider. Gathered together we were, each in our homes, across a troubled and grieving nation, yet as one. We all lit a candle and created a sacred space. Through our screens we saw the faces and names of Joe’s family and friends and we experienced the abiding truth that “nothing can separate us from the love of God in Christ.”
Vicki Ellis is a founder of Bainbridge House