Ronald Bradley

Ronald Bradley was born August 28, 1944 in Artesia, California, and died Tuesday, January 1, 2019 at his home of many years in Kerrville, Texas, due to complications of Parkinson's Disease.\r\n\r\nRon was a man who did things. He took care of things. He treated people with honesty and integrity. He laughed and made others laugh-a lot-because he was funny as hell.\r\n\r\nHis close surfing friends nicknamed him Kon-Tiki because of his love of the ocean and his ability to fix things. \r\n\r\nHe once did a touch and go landing of a small plane in a rice paddy in the Philippines which turned out to be more touch than go due to muddy conditions and the weight of his large Air Force buddy. Both of them eventually made it back to Clark AFB with no one the wiser.\r\n\r\nHe learned electronics and used his skills after his military service working at Beckmann Instruments, then captaining sportfishing yachts from Newport Beach, California to Mazatlan, and later maintaining motor homes in which he and his wife Chris traveled.\r\n\r\nAs a young adult he water-skied the Colorado River, played a wash tub bass in a club in Puerto Vallarta, and rode a Harley Electra Glide as his only transportation for a time - which he described as pretty inconvenient. After he moved to Texas, he played hours of racquetball and swam miles of laps in between working as a real estate broker and as the managing partner of Take-it-Easy RV Park. He served a term as president of the Kerrville Board of Realtors, was named 1999 Realtor of the Year, and enjoyed serving the community as a member of the Exchange Club. In addition, he could do one heck of a John Wayne impression.\r\n\r\nRon loved to cook and developed specialties, including saffron risotto which he loved to prepare since it requires lots of fidgeting at the stove. \r\n\r\nRon mountain biked in many different states and in three different countries, played beach volleyball in Baja, and backpacked in the Sierras. He windsurfed for more than 25 years and executed perfect duck jibes on the rolling waves of the Sea of Cortez. \r\n\r\nHe lived in what he called his retreat at Tierra Linda for 42 years and could make the turkeys roosting behind the house answer back when he gobbled, which always impressed out-of-state friends (though the turkeys also replied if he yelled "Hey, stupid!").\r\n\r\nHe had fun. And no doubt he's off on another grand adventure.\r\n\r\nAccording to his wishes, there will be no service, and his ashes will become a part of the earth and sea.\r\n\r\nRon and Chris were married almost 30 years, and she would appreciate hearing stories of Ron as time goes by.\r\n\r\n"Death is only part of things bigger than we can imagine." --Louise Erdrich