Bruce C Bradley

Bruce C. Bradley, age 67, passed away at his home in Oshkosh on May 10, 2019. .

Bruce was born December11, 1951 in Oshkosh, the son of Clark and Antoinette (Toni Schneider) Bradley. He was united in marriage to Judy Rausch on May 29, 1982 in Oshkosh. While doing genealogy it was found that their first 1982 marriage license was lost and never filed by the officiant. In 2007 Bruce and Judy petitioned Winnebago County court and was awarded a second delayed registration of marriage license back dated to 1982. Bruce and Judy have a daughter, Ann.

Bruce graduated from Lourdes High School and the University of Wisconsin, Oshkosh where he received both his Bachelors and Masters Degrees of Education as a reading specialist. He worked as a high school English teacher for 7 years for the State Department of Education at Random Lake High School and Hartford High School and then 1 year at Lourdes High School, Oshkosh. Bruce retired from teaching in 1983 due to multiple sclerosis.

Bruce had many interests. During high school he was a member of the band Seltaeb (Beatles spelled backwards) playing the base guitar. He canoed on Asylum Bay from his family dock, deer hunted, won radio prizes calling into the 1990s trivia time WOSH talk radio station. He enjoyed photography, genealogy and making ceramics at the Senior Center with his parents.

Bruce was known for his courage to over come life’s challenges, loss of driver’s license at age 34 and loss of physical independence. In the mid 1980’s Bruce first used a cane and then needed a walker and then a scooter. By the late 1980s he used a wheelchair.

In the 1990’s he organized the Winnebago Multiple Sclerosis Support Group and volunteered at Bethel Home Nursing Home with the weekly Men’s Group, nurse aide students and the UWO nursing students at Bethel Home. He was a member of the Oshkosh Citizen Advisory Committee in the 1990s.

Having multiple sclerosis created traveling challenges. Where areas were not wheelchair accessible, Bruce would take a few steps or take the wheelchair anyway. He found in Hawaii he could walk one step at a time over flat rocks to a lava hole or over rocks in Nova Scotia to look inside a light house. The family traveled in his handicapped equipped vans with a portable mechanical lift. He enjoyed traveling through out the United States including Alaska and Hawaii, across Canada and a cruise to the Bahamas. Bruce took his wheelchair to old forts, Indian archaeological sites, dinosaur and prehistoric animal sites and museums in Canada and the Western USA. While in Hawaii Bruce and Judy tandem parasailed together in Honolulu overlooking Diamond Head. Two staff at Waikiki Beach helped Bruce to struggle to walk across the loose sand and get into the outrigger canoe.

Bruce is survived by his wife Judy, daughter, Ann, sister, Sue Hildahl, brothers in-laws and sisters-in-laws, Camron and Karen Lauersdorf, Debbie Melanz, Michael and Lori Rausch, Jim and Bonnie Rausch and Debbie Rausch and nieces and nephews. Bruce is preceded in death by his parents, his father-in-law and mother-in-law Norbert and Ione Rausch, brothers-in-law Michael Hildahl, Jerry Rausch, Don Rausch, Steve Melanz and sister-in-law Kathy Rausch.

A visitation for Bruce will be held on May 20, 2019 from 9:00AM-11:00AM at St. Raphael’s and mass at 11:00AM

Memorials in his name can be directed to St. Raphael’s Church and the Multiple Sclerosis Society.
The family would like to thank Ascension Hospice staff.