- Date Of Birth: December 14, 1948
- Date Of Death: December 18, 2013
- State: Indiana
Douglas E. Bradley, Dec. 14, 1948a”Dec. 18, 2013
Douglas E. Bradley, curator of the Arts of the Americas, Africa and Oceania at the University of Notre Dame’s Snite Museum of Art since 1979, died Wednesday, Dec. 18, of complications of treatment for non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma.
A 1971 Notre Dame alumnus, Bradley earned a master’s degree in museum practice from the University of Michigan in 1976. He returned to Notre Dame in 1979 as a curator in the Snite Museum.
Bradley’s curatorial and scholarly interests principally concerned Mesoamerican art, and he did groundbreaking research on artifacts of the Olmec civilization in ancient Mexico. In addition to his work on the Snite Museum’s collections, he regularly taught a popular academic course on “The Olmec and Their Legacy.”
“Doug was one of a very small group of national and international Mesoamerican art scholars, and we are fortunate to have had him here,” said Charles R. Loving, director of the Snite Museum. “He developed our Mesoamerican collection from a few odds and ends into what many art scholars believe to be the nation’s finest.”
He is survived by two daughters, Elizabeth O’Connor (Timothy), South Bend; Catherine Bradley (and fiancAC. Isaac Day), Chicago, Ill.; his much-loved grandson, Ian O’Connor; and a sister, Karen Bradley, of West Milton, Ohio.
“Papa Doug” was his grandson Ian’s best friend, and they loved to watch the trains go by from the front porch. To his sister Karen, he was “the best brother ever.” To his daughters, he was an amazing father and friend and will be greatly missed.
In his last days he had the support of many friends, including former wife Carol C. Bradley, dear and faithful friends Corrine Ross, Dick Niemi, Jim Bellis, Tom and Rosemary Bell and many others. 3545 N. 3545 N. Bendix Drive
South Bend, IN
