OSPA leadership was saddened to learn about the passing of Dr. Homer Leslie Bradshaw. Dr. Bradshaw died on Sept.15, 2019 at the age of 97 in Friendship Village in Kalamazoo, Mich.
Dr. Bradshaw was born July 29, 1922 in Pomeroy and raised in Howland, Ohio. After high school he joined the 1878th Aviation Battalion building landing fields in the Pacific for the B29s that would carry the atomic bomb to Japan and would hasten the end of World War II. After the war Homer enrolled on the GI Bill at Ohio University, where he graduated in 1952 summa cum laude with his B.S. degree. He later attended The Ohio State University where he received his M.S. degree and Ph.D. in psychology.
Upon completion of his doctorate, Dr. Bradshaw joined the psychology faculty at Ohio University in Athens where he pioneered work and training in educational psychology. He retired in 1985 with the rank of Professor from the Department of Psychology. He served as the Director of the Graduate School of Psychology Program and was honored with an emeritus professorship upon retirement.
From 1962 to 1964, Dr. Bradshaw was contracted by the United States government to serve as technical advisor to the Universities of Saigon and Hue in then South Vietnam. Dr. Bradshaw and his wife, Joan (Koby), lived and worked in Hue in central Vietnam overseeing the building of the Faculty of Pedagogy. It was in Hue where they met Jay and Ann Parsons, not yet married, who over the years were to become their adopted children and, in turn, the Parsons' children, Alison and Tim, became their adopted grandchildren. However, the Parsons were not the Bradshaws' only adopted children. Before going to Vietnam, Homer and Joan befriended Jean (Foster) Calladine, Linda (Potter) Miller and Connie (Glasgo) Gross, undergraduates at Ohio University. The Bradshaws took these young women on a month-long camping trip which enabled them to attend a Methodist student conference in California. This cemented a special friendship. All of these friendships became lifelong "family."
During Dr. Bradshaw's illustrious career he served as consultant to a variety of educational agencies. He was a Past President of the Ohio School Psychologists Association (1975) and a member of a number of professional organizations and national honoraries. Dr. Bradshaw was the recipient of the Clyde V. Bartlett Distinguished Service Award, the highest professional recognition for Ohio school psychologists. His work received formal recognition from both the Ohio 96th General Assembly and the House of Representatives for outstanding service to Ohio. The psychology testing rooms at OU were named after Dr. Bradshaw in recognition of his contribution to the field and to the university. He continued his love of teaching in retirement, working with students from the area schools who needed extra help.
After retirement, the Bradshaws built their home in Sinking Spring, Ohio. After Mrs. Bradshaw's untimely death in 1997, Dr. Bradshaw became an active member of the Sinking Spring Community Church where he taught Sunday School for many years and volunteered for a variety of fundraising events. He established a particularly close relationship with the Rev. Greg and Diane Roberts during those years.
Dr. Bradshaw passed away quietly, surrounded by his family of Jay and Ann Parsons; his granddaughter, Alison, her husband, Eric, and their son Fletcher.