Alton Bradford Mechanicsville, VA

Alton S. (Sonny/Brad) Bradford Jr. (84) left this earth on Wednesday, March 2, 2022 in Glen Allen, Virginia. His family is thankful that he is at rest and at peace after a short illness brought on by the long-term effects of congestive heart failure.

The son of Alton and Cleyta Belle (Jones) Bradford, he was born in Washington DC, and is survived by his wife, Judy, his high school sweetheart and wife of 63 years. They both attended Bethesda Chevy Chase (BCC) High School, along with his brother, Charlie and his sister, Jean. After marrying in their hometown of Bethesda in 1958, they moved to Rockville, Maryland to start a family, and raise their three children, Vickie, Kimberly, and Todd.

In his younger years, growing up with his brother and sister on Fairglen Lane in Bethesda, he was always willing to lend a hand to his brother and sister. The many stories of the adventures with his brother Charlie give fond memories to the family and Jean fondly remembers him helping her with the challenges of college. He and Judy spent time with the Methodist Youth Fellowship (MYF) as youth counselors, forming many lifelong friendships.

A Civil Engineer, he started his career drafting curb sections for the Navy while still in college. Although a civilian, he took the Navy at their word to “See the World.” Early highlights in his career, were going to Antarctica to work on the infrastructure at McMurdo Station, spending time in Vietnam during the war and working on the runway at President Lyndon Johnson’s ranch.

In 1974, he accepted an opportunity to work on the Trident Submarine Base in Bangor, Washington. It was no small feat to move his family across country to Silverdale, Washington for this adventure. Towing his pumpkin orange Karmann Ghia behind a Ford Galaxy loaded with him, his wife, three kids and a cat that would only relieve herself if he dug a hole in the desert and filled it with kitty litter, a two-week adventure ensued. He drove a hard schedule on the trip but would grudgingly indulge our mother when she wanted to detour somewhere that the AAA books told her were educational. His response to our long detour to Daniel Boone’s log cabin after reading the sign saying “In a log cabin much like this…” was memorable, to say the least.

His family will tell you how much of an impact moving to Silverdale, WA had. Although there was only one stoplight (often blinking) in town when they arrived, they all found the chance for adventure, growth and excitement they would not have had in Rockville, MD. Lifetime memories, as well as friendships were formed there, as his coworkers and friends became a tight network more like an extended family- forming lifetime bonds that survive to this day.

It was there that his daughter, Vickie, met the love of her life David, with whom she had his two wonderful granddaughters, Alyssa and Brenna, who are now with their husbands, Paul and John respectively, raising his great-grandchildren Elleigh, Colin, Norah, Grant, and Nathaniel.

While in living in Washington State, when he wasn’t working on his woodworking projects, he spent many weekends on the Puget Sound fishing from his boat, he “Empty Pockets” as well as volunteering his time helping the Titans Junior Drum and Bugle Corps, which Vickie and Kim were heavily involved in, raise money at their Bingo Games. After the Submarine Base was completed in 1979, he moved his family back to Rockville, and was named the Assistant Commander for Engineering and Design, Naval Facilities Engineering Command, his first position in his 14 years as a member of the Senior Executive Service, with presidential confirmations under Presidents Jimmy Carter, Ronald Reagan, and George H.W. Bush. He also served as an SES for the Navy Fire Training program as well as Naval Facilities and Transportation. He also found time to sit on various boards and commissions, of which the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution was probably his favorite.

He could always be found building something – whether it was a deck in the backyard, another deck in the back yard, another deck in the back yard, another deck in the back yard… You get the picture - he never did anything half-way. He took this “all in” approach to his volunteer work with the Kiwanis. Through the 90s he served in many leadership roles in their Toys for Tots program, Christmas in April efforts and their Olney Theater project. He also served as their treasurer and taught CPR classes. He also did all the construction and finishing work of the “build out” of “I Do-I-Do Wedding Dresses” Judy’s consignment wedding dress business, from the first one in the basement of their home, to the final one in downtown Rockville, as well as all the accounting for the business.

Starting with his Shopsmith multifunctional woodworking tool he bought as a teenager with his saved-up paper route money, he maintained a life-long passion for woodworking, and more specifically, woodturning. Combined with his engineering and math skills, the challenge of segmented woodturnings was one he could not pass up. As an active member of the Chesapeake Woodturners and, after he relocated to Mechanicsville in 2006 to be closer to his daughter Kim and her husband, Ron, the Richmond Woodturners. He won many awards for his intricate object d’ arts from bowls to vases. He also enjoyed helping others to learn the craft, teaching not only his son Todd, but his son-in law and good friend, Ron, and the teenage boys next-door (John and Josh) how to turn everything from bowls to pens. His passion for the art and his skills helped him forge friendships in the woodworking community across the country and across the ocean.

Formerly from Rockville, Maryland, he had relocated to the Richmond, VA suburbs of Mechanicsville, VA and more recently Glen Allen, VA. In addition to his wife Judy, he is survived by his three children, Vickie (David), Kimberly (Ron), and Todd. He is also survived by his two granddaughters, Alyssa (Paul), and Brenna (John) as well as his five great-grandchildren, Elleigh, Colin, Nathanael, Grant and Norah, and his loving siblings, and Charlie (Vicki) and Jean (John), and his nephew Michael. He is preceded in death by his parents Alton and Cleyta Belle, as well as his brother-in law John and his nephew Stephen.