Naomi Bradford, a longtime Denver school board member who fought school busing, died of heart failure at her Lakewood home March 13. She was 66.
Bradford, often referred to in the media as “feisty,” served on the school board from the mid-1970s to the early 1990s.
She ran an unsuccessful campaign in 1980 to unseat Denver’s longtime Democratic congresswoman, Pat Schroeder.
“Bradford’s style never strayed from a simple description: a fighter,” The Denver Post reported in 1993.
She herself said, “No one could ever put the label of ‘moderate’ on Naomi Bradford.”
Bradford, who once served as president of the school board, said she wasn’t moderate about the need for basic education, her stand against busing or her belief in neighborhood schools – and held her positions “strongly.”
Just over a year after her first election in 1975, Bradford was censured by other board members for contending that some members were guilty of a conflict of interest for investing pension funds at a bank whose president was the husband of a school board member.
She abruptly ended a 1983 meeting of the school board in the middle of a “shouting match” she was having with another board member, Omar Blair, according to media reports.
A story in The Post said Bradford was characterized in 1991 by the Denver Classroom Teachers Association as an “embarrassment” after her son, Ralph Bradford, then 28, swung a baseball bat at teachers picketing outside Bradford’s home.
In 1993 Bradford was criticized for a possible conflict of interest with her private business, Colorado V.I.P., which encouraged high-schoolers to go to college. Other board members said her connection with the business could be a conflict because it required cooperation from school officials, who gave her time in the schools and provided transportation for students.
The wrangles on the school board “rolled off her back,” said daughter Rhonda Bradford Birdnow of Denver. “She had amazing resolve and persistence and was so convicted in what she believed.”
Another daughter, Joan Bradford Southern, said her mother “always believed nothing was impossible.”
Naomi Bradford’s stand against busing was based on her belief in the right of kids to go to their neighborhood schools, Rhonda Birdnow said.
Naomi Llewella Taylor was born in Los Angeles on July 1, 1940. She married Ronald Bradford in 1960, and they divorced in 1979.
Naomi Bradford earned a teaching degree at Colorado Christian University and studied at the University of Phoenix. In Denver she taught in parochial schools and at West High School.
At the time of her death, she was principal at Northeast Academy Charter School in Denver.
In addition to her daughters, she is survived by her son, of Lakewood; five grandchildren; three sisters; and one brother.
Staff writer Virginia Culver can be reached at vculver@denverpost.com or 303-954-1223.
