Roll Call Tribute

Bart Smith Bradford of Fort Worth, Texas passed away Wednesday, May 20, 2020, after a long, well-lived life. He was born in Ennis, Texas on August 27, 1932 to Agnes and Hayden Bradford.

Bart graduated from Amon Carter Riverside High School in Fort Worth in 1950. Bart attended Texas A&M University as a first-generation college student. During his college years, Bart served in the United States Army from 1953 until 1955 and was stationed at Kaiserslautern Army Base in the Rhineland-Palatinado region of Germany. Bart returned to Texas A&M following his service and graduated in 1957 with a degree in Landscape Architecture, only two of which were awarded that year.

Bart married Nancy Bailey in 1974 and was a loving husband who cared deeply about his family. Family first was his creed and there was nothing he enjoyed more than being with family and good friends, of which he had many. His wife, Nancy, was his best teammate and the love of his life.

His children, Vincent and Kyle, brought him great pride and one of his greatest thrills was the birth of his grandson, Charles Bradford in 2019.

Bart - The Man
Bart was charismatic, interesting and a wonderful conversationalist and listener. He loved to travel and was fortunate enough to visit many parts of the world. He studied history and was particularly interested in Texas history. He consumed many books each year, mostly about history, and it was not unusual for him to plan a trip around a historical location or event.

His fascination with history led him later in life to develop a deep interest in his own ancestry. He conducted research for many years and was able to trace his maternal and paternal lineage back over two hundred years. Bart’s passion for ancestry created volumes of family history for future generations to enjoy. Bart delighted in sharing his research with his family. In 2017, Bart took his children, Vincent and Kyle, on a historical road trip to visit sites of his early life, including his childhood home and the town movie theater where Bart spent many an afternoon.

He was a master at organization and planning and enjoyed helping others with their projects, sometimes for an afternoon’s entertainment and sometimes spending days researching and planning. He could immerse himself into any subject from landscaping to financial planning to buying a used car. Nine times out of ten, your plan would be mapped out on a “Bart Chart” created on a paper napkin while indulging in the great pleasure of grilled “Bart Burgers.” If your project was more complicated, you might find yourself enjoying Bart’s famous grilled ribeye steak with garlic, butter, and lemon, fine wine, and a three inch, three ring binder to take home containing the analysis and solutions to your project. There was always a project and a party around Bart.

Throughout Bart’s life, he took a keen interest in the neighborhood of Ryan Place, where he and his wife, Nancy, happily lived and raised their loving family. In the 1970s, Bart was one of the founding members of the Ryan Place Improvement Association (the RPIA). His planning skills proved to be a great asset to the RPIA and he was instrumental in developing Daggett Park and promoting a tree planting campaign, both of which resulted in a greener, more beautiful neighborhood.

After retirement, he turned his energy towards creating a Community Renewal Plan for Ryan Place. He surveyed and recorded the condition of every street, tree, sidewalk, curb, and empty lot in Ryan Place. He then made detailed recommendations to the City of Fort Worth and used his influence, contacts, and know-how to help the RPIA obtain funding to improve the streets, curbs, and sidewalks in Ryan Place. He was also instrumental in the implementation of traffic calming measures in Ryan Place, which include three traffic circles on historic Elizabeth Boulevard and chicanes throughout the neighborhood. Many of the improvements in Ryan Place can be attributed to Bart’s planning skills and his love of Ryan Place.

Everywhere he went Bart made friends, especially on his and Nancy’s many trips around the U.S. and to Europe. Friends from near and far loved to visit Fort Worth and stay at the “Bradford Hotel.” Bart and Nancy entertained a constant flow of visitors.
Professional Career
During Bart’s professional journey he evolved from landscaping design to city planning to pioneer marketeer of planning, coordinating, and engineering services offered by Carter and Burgess, Inc. where he retired in 1997 as the Vice President of Marketing.

As a young man in the summer of 1957, fresh out of college, he landed his first professional job as a draftsman with Stewart King working in the historic King William area of San Antonio. There he was exposed to some of the some of the most innovative minds in city planning including; Stewart King, Sam Zisman and O’Neal Ford. All three of whom collaborated beginning in the 50s to improve the city of San Antonio. Bart was hired by King in 1957 who had a private practice in the historic King William area of San Antonio. His “office” neighbors included architect O’Neil Ford and city planner Sam Zisman. While maintaining autonomous practices, they collaborated on larger projects such as Trinity University and Texas Instruments, where they integrated architecture, landscape architecture, and planning. It was here that the “novel idea” of organizing the engineers, designers, construction crew, etc. into a collaborative team influenced his passion for city planning.

In 1959, the City of Fort Worth hired Bart as the Assistant Director of Planning in the newly created Department of City Planning. In this position, Bart had an opportunity to help create plans for Fort Worth, an endeavor that had not been undertaken since the late 1920s. In fact, at that time, the City’s planning office had antiquated subdivision and zoning ordinances, no planning tools or land use information, and didn’t even have a map of Fort Worth.

It wasn’t long before Bart was tapped to head up the Community Renewal Program for the City of Ft. Worth. Bart and his team were tasked with identifying the renewal needs of the community and to prepare a general long range plan to correct or solve problems. The plan, The Nature and Character of the City of Ft. Worth was completed in the mid-60s after an exhaustive thorough surveying of the physical condition of every street, building, and neighborhood in the city.

Bart worked briefly for Gene Schrickel who is widely considered one of Texas’ visionary pioneers in Texas Municipal Park planning and design and who further influenced Bart’s growing passion for city planning.

In 1965, Carter and Burgess, Inc., a burgeoning engineering firm of fewer than fifteen employees, offered Bart a position to join a small team of engineers. Over the years, Bart’s team built the firm into a large, multidisciplinary company providing engineering, design, planning, and construction management services to public and private clients in the fields of transportation, planning, environmental, communications technology, real estate, and land development. Bart retired in 1997 as the Vice President of Marketing. A tribute to his far sightedness, his patience, his willingness to do the hard work, and his ability to gain the respect of colleagues and clients.
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Bart is survived by his wife of 46 years, Nancy; his daughter and son-in-law, Vincent Bradford and Joe Imoe of Fort Worth; his son and daughter-in-law, Kyle and Callie Bradford of Dallas; his grandson, Charles Henry Bradford; four sisters-in-law, three brothers-in-law, nieces, great nieces and nephews, and several cousins. He is predeceased by his parents, Agnes and Hayden Bradford.

When Bart died, he left a huge void in the lives of those who loved him, but we are comforted by his love and inspiring legacy. He is missed and always will be remembered.

Due to the Covid-19 virus a celebration of life memorial service will be announced to family and friends at a later date.

In lieu of customary remembrances, the family requests that memorial contributions be directed to a charity of one’s choice.