Bradley, Richard

The fifth Headmaster of Ridley College, Bradley arrived on campus in 1971—and his decade at the school proved to be one of significant transformation. When he took over the leadership, Bradley immediately set out to improve the quality of life at Ridley. He overhauled the discipline structure, strengthened the faculty, changed the nature of the enrollment with the introduction of girls, introduced new activities, influenced an artistic and cultural revitalization with the introduction of new courses, and set in motion the reorganization of the school's business administration.

When he left in 1980, there had also been significant physical changes on campus: the McLaughlin Building, an upgrading of School House, a new biology laboratory, the H.C. Griffith Athletic Complex, the Performing Arts Centre, and the restructuring of boarding houses to accommodate the female students.

Together with the Board Chairman of the 1970s, Bradley was prepared to abandon the old and the familiar in order to bring Ridley forward, put it on firm ground, and recover its preeminent status as a boarding school. In 2000, he co-authored with Paul Lewis, Ridley A Canadian School. He died at age 89 on March 25, 2016 in Massachusetts.