Sierra Club Oral History Project SIERRA CLUB REMINISCENCES
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Sierra Club Oral History Project SIERRA CLUB REMINISCENCES 11 Harold C. Bradley Furthering the Sierra: Cl ub Tradition C. Nelson Hackett Lasting Impressions of the Early Sierra Club Philip S. Bernays Founding the Southern California Chapter Harold E. Crowe Sierra Club Physician, Baron, and President Glen Dawson Pioneer Rock Climber and Ski Mountaineer Interviews Conducted By Judy Snyder Jo Harding Richard Sear1 e Sierra Club His tory Commi ttee SERIES PREFACE -- SIERRA CLUB REMINISCENCES Sierra Club Reminiscences is a series of Sierra Club oral history interviews with club leaders and longtime members whose activities in the club span the past eighty years. It includes the interviews with seven men who served the club as president during the 1930s, 1940s, and 1950s. It preserves the recollections of mountaineers and rock climbers in the Sierra Nevada and beyond, and it records the tales of early mountain outings as far back as 1909. All of these interviews make apparent the roots of the Sierra Club in first-hand, often pioneering, experiences in the mountains of California. In addition, they demonstrate how an abiding love for these mountains led many of these individuals to engage in national campaigns to preserve park and wilderness areas. Thus, they validate the Sierra Club motto, "to explore, enjoy, and preserve." At the same time, this series sets the stage for interviews of the following generations of Club leaders who rose to prominence in the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s. Ann Lage, Cochair Sierra Club History Committee Harold C. Bradley FURTHERING THE SIERRA CLUB TRADITION An Interview Conducted by Judy Snyder Sierra Club History Committee San Francisco ,' California Sierra Club San Francisco, California Copyright@197 5 by Sierra Club All rights reserved PREFACE When I first met Harold C. Bradley, he had recently returned to his family home in Berkeley after forty-two years of service at the University of Wisconsin Medical School. At the time of his retirement in 1948, his excellence in the field of physiological chemistry was recognized by his receipt of the second faculty Emeritus Award given by the university. And even in far away Wisconsin he had participated in the long, unsuccessful cam- paign (from 1906 to 1913) to save the Hetch Hetchy Canyon from being dammed to furnish water for Sap. Francisco. Once back in California, Harold became a member and later chairman of the club's conservation committee (then the only conservation committee). Many meetings were held in the spa- cious, hospitable Bradley home, and through those evenings and days came the development of ideas which are with us still. Harold himself first conceived of the clean-up campaigns which later became the service trips of the club. He was extremely active in the effort to keep the dams of the Upper Colorado River Project out of Dinosaur National Monument, a campaign which, more than any other conservation battle, changed the character of the Sierra Club from the outdoor California-oriented group it was once to the influential national conservation institution it has grown to be today. Following the tradition of leadership established by his father Cornelius, who was among the founders of the Sierra Club in 1892, Harold became a member of the board of directors in 1951 and served for ten years. He was the president of the club from 19 57 to 19 59. He filled this office with great distinction. He presided at board meetings with dignity and kindliness, giving each speaker opportunity to present fully his viewpoint. When he retired from the board he was forthwith elected an Honorary Vice President, an honor which he held from 1961 until his election as Honorary President in December, 1974. In May, 19 66, he was given the John Muir Conservation Award, the highest the club can extend to anyone. iii Harold became a patron member of the Sierra Club for his generosity in giving a hut in the mountains west of Lake Tahoe to the club, to be used as a refuge for those who continue his love for cross-country skiing. He was also one of the far-sighted donors who helped buy the Soda Springs property at Tuolumne Meadows in Yosemite National Park for the Sierra Club in 1912. This property has been enjoyed by many thousands of club members , and just recently has been transferred to the National Park Service. Harold Bradley is a man of many qualities: scientist, teacher, scholar, conservationist and a gentleman in the full sense of the word. He brings honor to the Sierra Club itself as he receives our ultimate tribute, recognition as our Honorary President. Edgar W8yburn March, 19 75 INTRODUCTION The Sierra Club History Committee asked me to interview Dr. Harold C. Bradley, ninety-six year old Honorary President of the Sierra Club. Dr. Bradley's recollections of the Sierra Club go back to its earliest days. His father, Cornelius Bradley, was a founding member of the club and a friend of John Muir. Carrying on in the family tradition, Dr. Bradley has been an active out- doorsman and ski mountaineer, as well as a conservationist and Sierra Club director and president. The interview was conducted on July 6, July 13, and July 2 0, 1972, in Dr. and Mrs. Bradley's home. The Bradleys live in the gracious family home built by his father near the university campus in Berkeley, California. Mrs. Ruth Bradley has become somewhat of an historian on the Bradley family, so she sat in on the inte~ewsand contributed greatly to the conversations. She did not wish to be typed into the transcript, so her information has been incorporated into Dr. Bradley's conversations. The tape recordings of this interview are available at the Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley. Judy Snyder Sierra Club History Committee March, 1975 CONTENTS PREFACE .......................iii INTRODUCTION .................... v EDUCATION IN THE SIERRA CLUB TRADITION ........ 1 Cornelius Bradley. Charter Member .......... 1 Recollections of John Muir ..............3 Scholar and "Rugged Outdoorsman" .......... 5 Conservation: a Second Career ............7 ENJOYING AND PRESERVING THE SIERRA NEVADA .......9 Winter Trips in the Sierra .............. 9 Dams in the Parks ................. 11 Roads in the Parks ................. 12 Sierra Club Presidency ............... 13 INDEX ........................ 15 EDUCATION IN THE SIERRA CLUB TRADITION Cornelius Bradley, Charter Member Judy Snyder: Today is July 6, 1972 and I am talking with Dr. and Mrs. Harold C . Bradley. In this interview we plan to talk about Dr. Bradley's family background. Can you tell me about your father and mother--where they were born and a little about their background ? Harold Bradley: I don't know anything about my mother's back- ground except that she was born and raised as a farmer's child up in Greensboro, Vermont. I don't remember anything more about her life except that she carried milk cans to the point where she thought at least that it had bent her back. Snyder: How about your father, Cornelius Bradley? Bradley: Well, he was born and raised in Bangkok and came to this country when he was about twenty. He went to school in Oberlin, and there he met my mother. They were class- mates. Snyder: Did he ever return to Bangkok? Bradley: Yes, several times. On one of the trips back he deci- phered a monument that carried a story on it which apparently the Siamese weren't able to translate. He spent nearly a year there on that project and came back with a great trans- lation of it. He was an!-expert in several Oriental languages and also taught physics in the Oakland High School. He was vice principal of Oakland High School. Snyder: Was your sister born in Bangkok? Bradley: Yes. I was born in November, 18 78, in Oakland, Cali- fornia. She was six years older than I, and for the first eight or nine years of my life she managed to plaster me al- most every time she could; then one time I got really sore and hauled off and smacked her hard. After that we were very good friends. Snyder: When your father returned from Bangkok, where did he settle down? Bradley: In Fountain, Colorado, for one year to regain his health. In 1875 he came to Oakland and the job of vice p~incipalof Oakland High School. He taught there until 1882 when he came to the University of California, Berkeley, as a professor of English. Snyder: Was he ever a professor of any of those Oriental lan- guages that he spoke? Bradley: No, they had asked him to teach Greek for a while since he was fluent in that language, as well as Latin and Hebrew. But he stayed with English. Snyder: When did Cornelius become interested in mountains and hiking ? Bradley: I don't know if I can put a date on that, but when I was six years old my mother, father, sister, and I camped in Calaveras Grove. My father was talking with some other men,, one of whom had a gun. I took it and played with it till I dropped it into the ashes of the campfire, and they realized it wasn't a good idea for a small kid to be playing with a gun. Snyder: Can you tell me anything about the group of men who formed the Sierra Club? Bradley: Yes, my father was one of the charter members of this group, and I think the name Sierra Club started there right at that time. Many of them were professors at the University of California, Berkeley, and at Stanford, as well as lawyers and so on. Many of them used to go on trips together.