David Bradley, age 62, a resident of Nairobi, Kenya and of Wheaton, IL, died Monday, January 14, 2019, in Nairobi, Kenya.

Dave was born on April 11, 1956, the second of five boys to Hank and Bobbi Bradley in Mexico City, Mexico. Hank and Bobbi were missionaries with Wycliffe Bible Translators and were in their second year of service to the Jicaltepec Mixtecos in the southern Mexican state of Oaxaca. As with most missionary kids, Dave traveled a lot and he traveled well. In Mexico, he spent time principally in Mexico City and the small Indian village of Jicaltepec located about 150 miles south of the resort town of Acapulco on the Pacific coast, but also in the small towns of Ixmiquilpan and Mitla.

Every summer he would accompany his parents to the States, where they would teach aspiring missionaries and linguists how to analyze languages. This would become his life's calling, although he didn't know it yet.

He graduated from Putnam City High School in Oklahoma City and went on to earn a degree in Mathematics from Wheaton College. He also played football and ran track at Wheaton. Perhaps Dave's best football game statistically was a 180-yard effort against Hope College, which included two touchdowns of 89 and 46 yards. One long-time observer of Wheaton football is rumored to have described the 46-yard effort as the finest touchdown in Wheaton history. One summer, Dave was a member of a team of top Christian track athletes that coach Don "Bubba" Church took to Europe to compete and share the good news of Jesus Christ. In Dave's senior year, he, his brother Mark, and two teammates ran in the Division III National Championships in the 4X100 meter race at Calvin College in Grand Rapids, Michigan, winning All-American honors.

Along with his brothers, Dave learned his love of sport from his dad with encouragement from his mom. He learned to be a good teammate. Through injury and disappointment he learned to be humble and never boasted about his accomplishments on the athletic field. He was a quiet, determined, and successful competitor.

After graduating from Wheaton, Dave acquired his teaching certificate and taught high school math and coached football and track at Crown-Dundee High School for two years. Dave then joined a group of friends, including some Wheaton classmates, to work in Christian family camping ministry at Silver Birch Ranch in Wisconsin. The camp has expanded and is thriving today, and it has remained a meaningful place for Dave's family over the years. During Dave's time at Silver Birch, a school was started and he became its first headmaster.

It was during his tenure at Silver Birch that Dave decided to pursue the Lord's calling to full-time missions work in Bible translation. Dave began preparing to work with Wycliffe Bible Translators through a master's degree program in linguistics at the University of Texas-Arlington. It was there that he met his wife-to-be Karen Marie Bailey. After they married, they moved to eastern Africa, where they and their children served with Wycliffe for the rest of his life. Dave was a Bible translation consultant for many different language groups in the Democratic Republic of Congo, and he also helped with project finances and budgeting.

Dave and Karen have five wonderful children. Daniel graduated from Wheaton with a degree in Mathematics and is now working as a software developer with Epic in Madison, Wisconsin. Kelly also graduated from Wheaton with a degree in Applied Health Science and will shortly earn her nursing degree from Rush University College of Nursing. Hannah is a senior at Liberty University and is majoring in Biomedical Sciences. Drew is a sophomore at Liberty majoring in Math Education. Nico is a senior at Rosslyn Academy in Nairobi and plans to attend college in the fall. By God's grace, these young people all know and love the Lord.

In addition to his wife, Karen, and their five children, he is survived by his four brothers, Brad (Pamela), Mark (Sarah), Eric (Mitzi) and Scott (Debbie) Bradley.

A memorial service will be held on Saturday, January 26, 2019 at 2:00 p.m. at College Church , 332 E. Seminary Ave, in Wheaton. A live stream of the memorial service is available to watch by clicking here: Live stream of Bradley Memorial Service . Interment will be private at Wheaton Cemetery.

In lieu of flowers, memorial gifts may be directed to the Dave Bradley Family Fund available here on the website, or to Wycliffe Bible Translators to help fund the printing of the Omiti language New Testaments, one of the projects Dave worked on.