Donald Muir Bradburn, M.D.

Donald Muir Bradburn, M.D. passed away Wednesday, July 4, 2012 at age 87. He is survived by his wife of 53 years, Anne Chappell Strickland, two daughters, Muir Dean of Durham, NC and Helen Werum of Stuttgart, Germany; and three grandchildren, Ian, Anne and Sarah Werum.

Photography combined with natural history has been a lifelong avocation for Dr. Bradburn, chief of pathology at Touro Infirmary from 1974 to 2006. Beginning about age six with a Brownie Box Camera and trips to the Audubon Zoo, learning darkroom techniques in a converted laundry room while still in grammar school, his first “real” camera was a Leica III-F purchased in Japan while he was serving in the Navy during the Korean War.

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His photographs of the Mississippi barrier islands were the cornerstone of his fifteen year effort to have two small islands, Horn and Petit Bois, included in the National Wilderness system. Now a part of the Gulf Islands National Seashore, wilderness is the ultimate protection available to insure that these island remain preserved untouched for posterity.

Using the 35 mm format with Leicas, Nikons and finally digital Canons, his photographs have appeared in Natural History, Smithsonian, Audubon, Sierra Club, Nature Conservancy magazines as well as in National Geographic. His work is represented in the Audubon Encyclopedia of Birds and was featured in an award winning WYES-TV documentary, “the Fragile Barrier”.

He has had exhibits in the Mississippi Natural History Museum, Jackson, MS, the Eastern Shore Art Museum of Point Clear, AL, Studio 8 in New Orleans, the New Orleans Public Library, the Walter Anderson Museum of Art and more recently at the Garden District Gallery in New Orleans.

He was awarded the National Sierra Club’s prestigious Ansel Adams Award for Conservation Photography in 1971. In 1975 the Mississippi Wildlife Federation named Dr. Bradburn Conservation Communicator of the year. In 2011 the University Press of Mississippi published his book, “Last Barriers: Photographs of Wilderness in the Gulf Islands National Seashore”.

No local services have been announced at this time. Kindly omit flowers. Memorials to the Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra, 1010 Common St., Suite 2120, New Orleans, LA 70112, the Walter Anderson Museum, 501 Washington Ave., Ocean Springs, MS 39564 or the conservation organization of your choice. Tharp-Sontheimer Funeral Home of Metairie in charge of arrangements. Condolences may be expressed online at www.tharpsontheimer.com.