Leonard Keelon Bradley Jr.

Nashville

Leonard Keelon Bradley, who in a 28-year state government career was a senior policy assistant to three Tennessee governors, deputy commissioner of human services, and vice chancellor of the State University and Community College System of Tennessee, died in Nashville on Monday, June 22, 2015, at age 74. He served on the staffs of Governors Buford Ellington, Winfield Dunn, and Don Sundquist during a state government career that began in 1968. Bradley oversaw development and enactment of the 1996 Families First welfare reform initiative.

During the Ellington Administration, Bradley was the state’s first director of the Governor’s Highway Safety Program, later the first federal grant review coordinator, and director of the Office of Urban and Federal Affairs. Gov. Ellington detailed Bradley to a temporary position at a new U.S. Office of Management and Budget as an advisor on federal-state relations, and he testified before Congress on that subject. He continued as director of urban and federal affairs in the Dunn Administration and later was appointed as Gov. Dunn’s special assistant for policy planning. Bradley managed state government preparation for gubernatorial transitions for the outgoing Ellington and Dunn administrations. He was director of research and a legislative aide for Comptroller of the Treasury William R. Snodgrass and was detailed to assist the 1977 Constitutional Convention, which adopted the constitutional spending limit. He was deputy commissioner of the Dept. of Human Services during the administration of Gov. Lamar Alexander and was detailed by the Governor to the staff of Senate Minority Leader Tom Garland (R-Greeneville), to assist with legislation. On the Board of Regents staff of the State University and Community College System, Bradley served as associate vice chancellor for administration, handling legislative relations, and later as vice chancellor for facilities. There, he worked for three university system chancellors, Tom Garland, Dr. Otis Floyd, and Dr. Charles Smith. As Gov. Sundquist’s assistant to the governor for policy, Bradley oversaw development and enactment of the Families First welfare-reform program. He was appointed to the Great Smoky Mountains National Park Commission by Gov. Dunn and the Metropolitan Nashville Social Services Commission by Mayor Bill Purcell and served on the Tennessee Consolidated Retirement System board of directors, a cabinet-appointment screening committee for Gov. Phil Bredesen, and the Tennessee Wildlife Federation board of directors.

After retiring from state service in 1996, Bradley lectured in public policy and government for five years at Tusculum College, where he was director of the Institute for Public Leadership and Policy, and nine years at Vanderbilt University’s Peabody College. He retired from teaching in 2010.

He earned B.A. and M.A. degrees in political science at the University of Tennessee and a certificate in the state and local government executive program at Harvard University. He was a copy editor at the Knoxville News-Sentinel and served in the U.S. Army.

A wilderness backpacker and fly-fisherman, he cared deeply about natural areas, scenic rivers, wilderness preservation, and environmental issues and worked on these matters for Gov. Dunn. In retirement, Bradley enjoyed four years living in a cabin in the woods in Jackson Co., TN, near Flynns Lick and the Cumberland River ford crossed by his Bradley ancestors, who moved in 1796 from Stokes Co., NC, to Smith Co., TN, to settle in Sullivans, Kinneys, and Beasleys bends on the Cumberland. He had a continuing interest in higher education policy, attending many meetings of the TN Higher Education Commission throughout retirement.

Bradley is survived by two children, Timothy Bradley (Susan) of Norcross, GA, and Alice Sanders of Old Hickory; their mother, Sue Walls Bradley of Hermitage; four grandchildren, Macy Bradley and Lauren, Zachary, and Emma Sanders; three brothers, John (Jan) and Bill (Nannette) of Nashville and Thomas Bradley (Sandra Gregory) of Fairfax, VA; and a sister, Mary Elizabeth Ogren (Jim) of DeSmet, SD. Grandson Patrick Sanders died earlier. Leonard Bradley was born in Lebanon, TN, on August 12, 1940, the first of five brothers and a sister reared by the late Leonard K. Bradley, Sr., and Mary Ann Bryan Bradley. Leonard Bradley will be buried about 8 miles east of Lebanon via U.S. 70 (Sparta Pike) at the Bryan Cemetery on Greenwood Rd., near a memorial to his best young friend and closest brother in age, Robert Bryan Bradley (Ensign, U.S. Navy), who was lost at sea in 1965.

A private memorial gathering will be held in his honor.

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