When Tom Bradbury retired from the newspaper business, he entered a profession he'd written about extensively for The Charlotte Observer.
In 1999, the journalist left the paper to oversee the Charlotte Mecklenburg Education Foundation. Three years later, he moved to Atlanta to serve as vice president of communications for the Southern Regional Education Board.
"It was the start of a second career," said Marilyn Mayes Bradbury, a fellow journalist and his wife of 40 years. "He enjoyed the writing, researching and putting information out there to help people make decisions."
In 2002, Mr. Bradbury started losing his balance and had difficulty speaking. He was diagnosed with Progressive Suprarnuclear Palsy (PSP), a rare brain disease.
"We were fortunate to connect with people at Emory who specialized in it," his wife said. "But there is no cure."
On Wednesday, Paul Thomas "Tom" Bradbury of Marietta died from complications of the disease at home. He was 67. A memorial service will be held at 3 p.m. Saturday at St. James Episcopal Church in Marietta. Mayes Ward-Dobbins Funeral Home is in charge of arrangements.
Born in Chattanooga, Mr. Bradbury was the 1961 valedictorian at Atlanta's Westminster School. He earned a bachelor's degree in political science from Duke University and served in the U.S. Coast Guard Reserve.
At The Charlotte Observer, he served as the associate editor and was a long-time member of that paper's editorial board. His editorials specialized in education, urban planning and local history. He also wrote a book, "Dilworth: The First Hundred Years," that focused on the history of Charlotte's first streetcar suburb, where he and his family resided.
In Wednesday's online edition, the Observer noted Mr. Bradbury's passing and posted excerpts from the farewell column he penned when he left the paper 11 years ago.
"The prescriptions for schools are as common and often as certain as the patent medicine ads a century ago, but improving schools is not a simple or one-dimensional matter," he wrote. . . "Reaching every child is much easier to say than to do, much easier for editorialists to call for than for teachers and other educators to carry out. Homes and neighborhood social problems matter. Students aren't widgets and teachers aren't machines."
Mr. Bradbury earned his ham radio operator's license when he was 16 and eventually obtained the extra-class license, the highest rank. He belonged to the Kennehoochee Amateur Radio Club in Marietta.
"He was a whiz at sending Morse Code," his wife said. "The trick to it is being fast and he was very fast. His disease took that ability away from him."
Survivors other than his wife include a son, John Charles "J.C.' Bradbury of Marietta; a daughter, Elizabeth Hamilton of San Mateo, Calif.; three brothers, Robert E. Bradbury of Forth Worth, Texas; the Rev. William J. Bradbury of New Bedford, Mass.; and Andrew J. Bradbury of Atlanta; one sister, Mary Jo Bryan of Atlanta; and two grandchildren.
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