Baylor Distinguished Professor Receives Lifetime Achievement Award from Campus Ministry Group

by Judy Long
Dr. Walter Bradley, distinguished professor of engineering, and his wife, Ann, recently received the Lifetime Achievement Award from Christian Leadership Ministries, the faculty ministry of Campus Crusade for Christ, at the recent 25-year anniversary banquet in Dallas. Richard McGee, director of conferences and events at Christian Leadership Ministries, said the Bradleys were instrumental in organizing Christian Leadership Ministries in 1980.
McGee said the Bradleys received the award because of their examples of what it means to be Christians on a secular university campus. Bradley taught at the Colorado School of Mines for eight years and Texas A&M for 24 years before joining the Baylor faculty in 2002.
"Their lives involve not only scholarship and teaching, but they also open their home to students to minister to their intellectual, emotional and spiritual needs. In addition, they have developed effective and relevant campus outreaches and set a great example for others by integrating their faith and academics. They have led and helped organize Christian faculty groups over the years, and they have mentored and encouraged many young professors and graduate students," he said.
The Bradleys began working with Campus Crusade for Christ at his first teaching position at the Colorado School of Mines. When they arrived at the School of Mines, there were no Christian ministries on campus.
"It was truly a spiritual wasteland or a place of great opportunity, depending on how you look at it," Bradley said. "We started from scratch, beginning with programs in fraternities, and held discipleship studies. Ann studied with the girls, while I studied with the boys, and we hosted a lot of joint activities."
Bradley said at Texas A&M, the nature of what they did changed since it was a larger campus with many more Christians on the faculty. "At A&M we had an opportunity to start a faculty group that would make a visible Christian presence on campus and to do it in ways that were legal and professionally appropriate. Over the years, the group grew to the 250 members they have today, out of 2,250 faculty, or about 10 percent of the faculty. Our group represented a variety of denominations from Catholic to Baptist, Bible, Methodist and Presbyterian," he said.
Bradley, an internationally recognized polymer scientist, has served as an industry consultant, teacher and academic researcher on the reactions of plastics, metals and composites to stress.
He and Ann served as in-residence sponsors of the North Village student housing for the 2004-2005 academic year. He has also organized the multi-disciplinary Center for Appropriate Technologies for Developing Countries.

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