Dr Lawrence “Larry” James Bradford, an author and editor of audiology and speech pathology textbooks, passed away on October 30 in Iowa City, Iowa. He was 90.
An Army veteran during the end of WWII, Larry graduated from Stanford University on the GI Bill, and went on to earn a Master’s and PhD in speech pathology and audiology from the University of Kansas. He spent the majority of his career working for Children’s Mercy Hospital in Kansas City and The Menninger Foundation in Topeka, Kan, where he retired from in 1992.
In addition to his years of dedication to the hearing care profession, Larry was committed to making a difference in his community. He designed and implemented an award-winning hearing aid recycling program for the Sertoma Club, and, post-retirement, he volunteered at a Court Appointed Special Advocates (CASA) program, assisting at-risk youth in the foster care system. Known as a voracious reader, Larry never stopped learning; he enrolled in a variety of classes and seminars on topics as varied as astronomy and Mark Twain.
Larry is survived by wife, Mary Ann of Iowa City; three children, Leigh Bradford of Iowa City, Niels (Gloria) Pearson of San Clemente, Calif, and Gail Pearson of Finland; five grandchildren, Cole Hotek of Iowa City, Nikki (Ryan Fink) Pearson and their son, Weston, Leif Pearson, Lauri Gardner, and Esko (Ida) Gardner and their daughter Sointu; former son-in-law, Nick Hotek of Iowa City; and cousin Carol Briscoe, of Spokane, WA.
Condolences may be left for the family online at by clicking on the link here.
My condolences go out to Larry Bradford’s family. I have fond memories of my short, but important, contact with him. In 1976, I was working on my masters degree in audiology at the OU Health Sciences Center in OKC. I convinced my major professor to let me do a masters thesis. We agreed on “Respiration Audiometry” (RA) as the area for my thesis.
At the time, Dr. Bradford was the world’s foremost authority on RA. He was our next door neighbor at the Menninger Foundation in Kansas! Unbeknownst to me, my major professor graciously wrote and received a grant that paid for Dr. Bradford to come to our clinic/research facility on campus for a day. Dr. Bradford spent the morning in the basement lab working with Dr. Barry and myself on instrumentation and test technique for RA. In the afternoon, Dr. Bradford did a presentation for the audiology students and faculty on RA. I very much enjoyed and appreciated working with Dr. Bradford. He was an inspiration. My thesis work subsequently lead me to cochlear implant and middle ear implant research. Thank you Dr. Bradford!
Some of the oldie audiologists out there will also remember Dr. Bradford’s chocolate brown covered textbook that was commonly used for a diagnostics course and a clinical reference text in the 1970s. It was titled, “Physiologic Measures of the Audio-Vestibular System”. That was the first writing I saw connecting audiologist’s work to electronystagmography! What a pioneer and foreword thinker — because most audiologists/professors back then believed that the vestibular system did not have anything to do with “audition” and, consequently, did not need to be taught to audiology students or audiologists!!
Dr. Bradford, you will be missed.
Larry Engelmann, Au.D.