William C. Bradford, age 96, and a veteran of World War II, died September 20, 2021, in St. Petersburg, Florida. He was born to Richard Bradford and Beulah Nanney in Tampa, Florida. Bill joined the Navy in 1942 at age 17, and served in the Pacific campaign--including the Battle of Saipan--until the War's end in 1945. Following his Honorable Discharge, he earned a Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering at the University of Miami, and a Masters of Science in Engineering at UCLA. Bill spent most of his career doing specialized research as a civilian engineer with various U.S. Navy research organizations including the Naval Ordnance Laboratory of Corona, California, the Naval Training Device Center in Orlando, Florida, and the Naval Surface Weapons Center in China Lake, California, where he worked on, among other projects, developing specialized fuse device systems for guided missiles, a subject on which he had published numerous technical reports. William is survived by his children, Katherine Bradford and William Bradford, Jr., both of San Diego, as well as a nephew and seven nieces. He is predeceased by two brothers, Robert and Jack (Edna), and a sister, Miriam (Neal) Lucey. A military veteran’s burial will be held at Bay Pines Veterans Cemetery on November 2, 2021, at 2:30 pm.
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